Golshifteh Farahani to make European Debut

Golshifteh Farahani was born on 10 July 1983 in Tehran, she is the daughter of Behzad Farahani, a theater director and actor, and Fahimeh Rahim Nia. She also has a sister who is also an actress Shaghayegh Farahani. Golshifteh, who started studying music and playing the piano at the age of five, later entered a music school in Tehran. When she was just 14, Golshifteh was cast as the lead in Dariush Mehrjui's The Pear Tree. For her work she also won the Crystal Roc for Best Actress from the International Section of the 16th Fajr International Film Festival held in Tehran. Golshifteh has acted total in 25 films, many of which have received international recognition. For Boutique she won the Best Actress award from the 26th Nantes Three Continents Festival (France). In recent years she has acted in movies by some of Iran's most well-known directors.

The movies include Dariush Mehrjui's Santouri (The Santoor) and the late Rasool Mollagholipoor's M for Mother. Golshifteh won Best Actress at the 37th Roshd International Film Festival. It had been rumored that because of her acting in the U.S. film Body of Lies, she reportedly had been prevented by Iranian authorities from leaving Iran. Which was later denied by her colleagues and she later appeared at the movie's premiere in the United States. Golshifteh's last film performance in Iran was in About Elly directed by Asghar Farhadi. The film won Best Picture at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival; it won a Silver Bear at the Berlin film festival. In Iran, Golshifteh was also the part of an underground rock band named "Kooch Neshin" which won the 2nd Tehran Avenue underground rock competition.

After leaving her country, she has continued her music career as well, teaming up with another exiled Iranian musician, Mohsen Namjoo. Their new album Oy was released in October 2009. Golshifteh now lives in Paris, Farahani after being exiled from her country.

She will play Karenina at the Theatre de la Tempete in an adaptation of Leon Tolstoy’s novel written and directed by Gaetan Va s sart. She is also starring in the fifth of the Pirates of the Caribbean films alongside Johnny Depp next year. In 2003 she married her then boyfriend now husband, french born Amin Mahdavi. After a short affair, they soon decided to tie the knots in a small private wedding. Her net worth or salary is estimated to be $1 million.