The Gardener

Mohsen Makhmalbaf makes unusual films, and this may be his most unusual of all: an Iranian who makes a film in Israel – even those who don’t follow the news will realise how usual that is.
Makhmalbaf went with his son, cameraman Maysam, to Israel in order to tell a very unusual story of the Bahá’í faith, an extraordinary religion that started 170 years ago in Iran and now has 7 million followers. In Iran, the faith was banned, after which it found a new home in the Israeli city of Haifa. Gardens play a prominent position in the religion. The creation and maintenance of these beautiful gardens is part of the spiritual ritual. All holy places are surrounded by these gardens, and they are the main location for the film.
This is indirectly a story about the history of Iran, where an innocent ‘gardener’s faith’ could not remain, and where Makhmalbaf, once a proponent of the Islamic Revolution, is also no longer able to make his films.