Synopsis:

Akbar Abdi, the popular film actor has always wanted to act only in serious, art films, but a number of circumstances including financial problems force him to appear in commercial productions. Once again Abdi makes up his mind never to act in commercial movies, but then he finds out that his wife has decided to have a child and …

Title:

Screenwriter, Editor & Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Assistant Director: Fatemeh Meshkini
Director of Photography: Aziz Sa’ati
Music: Ahmad Pezhman
Make-Up: Abdollah Eskandari
Set Designer: Reza Alaghemand
Sound: Jahangir Mirshekari
Sasan Bagherpour
Cast: Akbar Abdi
Fatemeh Motamed-Arya
Mahaya Petrosiyan
Hamideh kheirabadi
Parvin Soleimani
Hossein Panahi
Mohammad-reza sharifinia
Hossein shamlou
1993, color, 86 mins.Iran

International Sales: Makhmalbaf Film House (Iran)

Festivals:

1) The 11th Fajr International Film Festival, Iran 1993.
Awarded the “Crystal Simorgh” for the best “Sound” and the best “Set Design”
2) The 21st La Rochelle International Film Festival, France 1993.
3) The 24th Taormina International Film Festival, Italy 1993.
4) The 23rd International Film Festival of Rotterdam ,Netherland 1994.
5) The 18th Hong Kong International Film Festival, Hong Kong 1994.
6) The Festival of Iranian Films in Armenia , 1994.
7) The Festival of Iranian Film at The film Center of Chicago, USA 1994.
8) The Festival of Iranian Films in Museum of Fine Arts of Boston ,USA 1994.
9) The Festival of Iranian Films in Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, USA 1994.
10) The 22 Royal Film Archive of Belgium Festival, Belgium 1994.
11) The Festival of Iranian Films at Cleveland Cinematheque, Canada 1995.“A Tribute to Mohsen Makhmalbaf”
12) The Festival of Iranian Films in the American Film institute, Washington DC, USA 1995.
13) The Festival of Iranian Films in the Wexner Art Center ,Columbus, USA 1995.
14) The Festival of Iranian Films in the Washington University , Seattle, USA 1995.
15) The 8th Singapore International Film Festival, Singapore 1995.
16) The Festival of Iranian Films in France , 1995.
17) Festival of Films from Middle east and North Africa In New York, USA 1995.
18) The 19th Sao Paulo International Film Festival ,Brazil 1995.
Awarded “The Crities’s Prize” for all films
19) The 27th New Delhi International Film Festival, India 1996.
20) Festival of Iranian Films at Film Society of Lincoln Center , New York , USA 1996.
21) The Festival of Iranian Films in UCLA, USA 1996.
22) The 14th Turin International Festival of young Cinema , Italy 1996.
23) The Festival of Iranian Films at The Cinematheque Ontario, Toronto,Canada 1997.
24) The Festival of Iranian Films at Montreal Conservatoire ,Canada 1997.
25) The Festival of Iranian Films at The Pacific Cinematheque ,Vancouver, Canada 1997.
26) The Festival of Iranian Film at The Cinematheque of Ottawa, Canada 1997.
27) The Festival of Iranian Films at The Northwest Film Center , Portland, 1997.
28) The Festival of Iranian Films at The Film Center of Chicago, USA 1997.
29) The Festival of Iranian Film at The Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, USA 1997.
30) Museum of Fine Arts of Boston ,USA 1997.
31) Museum of Modern Art of New York, USA 1997.
32) Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, USA 1997.
33) The Festival of Iranian Films at The UCLA Film Archive, USA 1997.“A Tribute to Mohsen Makhmalbaf”
34) The Festival of Iranian Films at Cleveland Cinematheque, Canada 1997.“A Tribute to Mohsen Makhmalbaf”
35) Festival of Film From The South , Copenhagen, Denmark 1997.
36) A retrospective of Mohsen Makhmalbaf , Sweden 1998.
37) The 14th Calcutta International Film Festival, India 1998.
38) The Festival of Iranian Films at The Royal Film Archive, Brussels, Belgium 1999.
39) The Festival of Iranian Films in Vienna, Austria 1999.
40) The Festival of Iranian Films at Slovenian Film Museum ,Slovenia 1999.
41) The Festival of Iranian films in Lebanon, 2000.
42) The Festival of Iranian films in Leipzig 2000.
“A retrospective of Mohsen Makhmalbaf”
43) The Festival of Iranian films in Bangladesh 2000.
“A retrospective of Mohsen Makhmalbaf”
44) The Festival of Iranian films in India 2000.
“A retrospective of Mohsen Makhmalbaf”
45) The Festival of Iranian films in New Delhi 2001.
“A retrospective of Mohsen Makhmalbaf”
46) The Festival of Iranian films in St Petersburg 2001.
“A retrospective of Mohsen Makhmalbaf”
47) Calcutta Film Festival, India 2001.
48) Moscow Film Festival, Russia 2001.
“Retrospective of Makhmalbaf Film House”
49) A retrospective of "Mohsen Makhmalbaf”in Madras,Banglore,Viji Vada,Haydarabad , India 2001
50) Dhaka International Film Festival, Bangladesh 2002.
“A retrospective of Mohsen Makhmalbaf”

Director’s view:

Film critics hail desica’s “Bicycle’s Thieves with hurrahs since he puts the blame on the social conditions and does not condemn “Fido”, the bicycle thief, ethically. However, the same people judge “Desica”, the filmmaker, with extreme ethicalism and blame him for directing commercial films in his late years. In fact, their system of criticism is entangled with duality; since, they fail to see “Desica” himself is another “Fido”.
In this film I have looked at an actor’s situation from Desica’s point of view in “Bicycle’s Thieves”.