Vahid Vakilifar is an Iranian film director born in Kermanshah, Iran, in 1981.

He graduated with a Master’s Degree in Film Direction from Soureh University in Tehran. He has been an assistant director and programmer on several features.

His previous films include the 2004 short Havery, the 2010 feature Gesher, the 2012 Taboor and the 2020 K9.

Vakilifar was previously a guest at IFFR in 2011 with his debut film Gesher. In Taboor, he breaks with the semi-documentary approach of his earlier film but remains faithful to his fascination with alienation from a world created by mankind.

At the Abu Dhabi Film Festival in 2009 where his feature film debut, the neorealist Gesher won the Best Film award and he received his prize from president of the jury who was none other than the late Iranian master, Abbas Kiarostami. Then in the 2012 Dubai International Film Festival where he presented his film Taboor, I acted as his English-Persian interpreter, and we became good friends.

Taboor was different to Gesher in every way but was very warmly received in Dubai. Vakilifar’s films post Gesher can perhaps be described as surrealist sci-fi post-modern, with philosophical undertones.

One can see influences of directors such as Tarkovsky, Kubrick, Lynch and alike. In other words, as far away from Iranian mainstream cinema as can be imagined.

As a result, his films have received scant public screening in his homeland and he has mainly relied on foreign film festivals for screening of his movies, where his films have collected many awards.