Mani Haghighi

Mani Haghighi (born 4 May 1969 in Tehran) is an influential Iranian‑Canadian filmmaker whose work spans directing, acting, writing, and producing, and who has become a distinctive voice in contemporary Persian cinema. Raised in a culturally rich family—his mother Lili Golestan a renowned translator and gallery owner, his father Nemat Haghighi a cinematographer, and his grandfather Ebrahim Golestan a celebrated writer and filmmaker—Haghighi was immersed in artistic discourse from an early age, an influence further deepened when his uncle, photojournalist Kaveh Golestan, introduced him to photography. After completing secondary education at Appleby College in Canada, he earned a BA in philosophy at McGill University, studying under thinkers such as Charles Taylor and Brian Massumi, and later pursued postgraduate work at the University of Guelph and Trent University, even contributing scholarly chapters on Deleuze and translating Foucault into Persian. Returning to Iran in 2001, Haghighi entered the commercial world of advertising before independently shooting Abadan (2002) on a Sony PD‑150 without an official permit, marking the first Iranian feature shot digitally and earning a premiere at Tribeca. His subsequent films—Men at Work (2006), co‑written Fireworks Wednesday (2006) with Asghar Farhadi, Canaan (2007), and the absurdist Modest Reception (2012)—demonstrated a fluid movement between dark comedy and social realism, garnering awards at Berlin, Locarno, and Tehran festivals. The 2016 surreal western A Dragon Arrives! and the commercially successful yet censored romantic comedy 50 Kilos of Sour Cherries further cemented his reputation for daring narrative experimentation and outspoken critique of cultural policy, illustrated by his public letters to minister Ali Jannati. Recent works such as Pig (2018) and Subtraction (2022) continue to explore meta‑cinematic themes and identity, while legal controversies—including the Yalasarat defamation trial—underscore the fraught relationship between Iranian artists and state authority. Haghighi’s career, active from 2003 to the present, reflects a relentless commitment to pushing cinematic boundaries, blending philosophical inquiry with vivid storytelling, and positioning him as a pivotal figure in the global perception of Iranian film.