ABSTRACT
Khunbazi, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad's 2006 film about a female addict, was one of the first films to be produced after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election, but it has only recently been shown in the West and has become of late more apropos than ever. In Iran, addiction, especially to alcohol, opium, heroin, marijuana, and now crystal meth has reached epidemic proportions. Government statistics have estimated Iran has about 1.1 million severely dependent drug users, approximately 7 percent of whom are women. This is what drives the filmmaking of Rakhshan Bani-Etemad and what has made it possible for her to produce and show her films: she focuses an intimate lens on broad issues, and as a documentary and narrative feature filmmaker she knows when to choose the appropriate genre. Based on the fact that addicts who self-mutilate enjoyed the sight of their own blood and playing with it, she suggested Khun Bazi.
