Mohammad Hossein Mahdovian was fascinated by the moving picture since his childhood. He was one of those children who, instead of playing in the street, always sat in front of the
TV and watched even the most outlandish programs. He decided to enter the cinema for the first time when he was ten years old, and of course, as a child, he wanted to become an actor.
Cinema had captured his heart, and besides watching television constantly, at the age of thirteen, Mahdovian recorded a picture for the first time with his uncle's home camera and gave his cousins a mise-en-scène in front of the camera. In this regard, he wrote his first screenplay in high school. Unlike his father, his uncle was interested in cinema, and his small age difference with Mahdovian made cinema more serious for Mohammad Hossein. Uncle and niece used to go to all their cinemas together in those days. He not only took Mahdovian to the cinema for the first time, but also gave him the first book of his childhood. "I don't remember anything specific about the first movies I saw in the cinema, but I'm sure that things from those years have influenced me, and sometimes the images that remain in my mind, surprise me."
History Mahdovian's favorite school subject was
history, and according to himself, he used to read newspapers and follow events. His interest in the contemporary history of Iran manifests in his films. At the same age, he became interested in
Jules Verne's books. His favorite movies before high school are lively and action movies with heroes, such as Western movies or "Eagles" and "Afee" among Iranian movies. But after high school and by getting acquainted with philosophy, his tendency is more towards intellectual cinema. "Arusi Khoban" directed by
Mohsen Makhmalbaf and "
Hamoun" by
Dariush Mehrjoui are popular films of his era: "In those years, I used to watch intellectual films in an extreme way, which usually have a slow rhythm and their main focus is not on the narrative, a kind of intellectual stew in those years I had and I thought that a good film should be very complicated." == Style ==