Babak Najafi

Iranian-Swedish film director (born 1975)

Babak Najafi
بابک نجفی
Babak Najafi at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival, 2010.
Born	Babak Najafi Karami (1975-09-14) 14 September 1975 (age 48) Pahlavi Iran
Occupation(s)	Film director, screenwriter

Babak Najafi Karami (Persian: بابک نجفی, born 14 September 1975) is an Iranian-Swedish film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer.^[1] He is known for directing the 2016 film London Has Fallen.

Biography

Early years

Najafi was born in Iran, and came to Sweden as a refugee at the age of 11, when his family fled from the Iran–Iraq War.^[2] Two of his brothers remained in Tehran, and it took 11 years before they met again.^[2] The family settled in Uppsala, where he spent his childhood.^[2] Between 1998 and 2002, he studied documentary directing at the Dramatiska Institutet.^[1]^[2]

Career

After graduation he wrote and directed a number of acclaimed short films, including the short film comedy Elixir (2004), which he was awarded the Bo Widerberg scholarship.^[1]^[2] In 2010, he made his directorial debut with the film Sebbe, which won a Guldbagge Award for Best Film, and earned him a nomination as best director at the 46th Guldbagge Awards. At the 60th Berlin International Film Festival, the film was competing in the Generation 14Plus category, for which Najafi won the award for Best First Feature.^[3]^[4] In 2012, he directed Easy Money II: Hard to Kill, the sequel to the 2010 film Easy Money.

Najafi made his English-language film debut with London Has Fallen (2016), the sequel to the 2013 film Olympus Has Fallen. The film was released to mostly negative reviews,^[5] but earned 205.8 million against a 60 million budget.^[6]

Filmography

Year	Title	Original title	Country of Production	Credited as			Notes
Year	Title	Original title	Country of Production	Director	Writer	DOP	Notes
1999	Rasten		Sweden	Yes	No	No	Short film
2001	Gösta and Lennart	Gösta & Lennart	Sweden	Yes	No	No	Producer Short film
2002	Pablo's Birthday	Pablos födelsedag	Sweden	Yes	Yes	No	Short
2003	Skolan		Sweden	Yes	No	Yes	Video
2004	Elixir		Sweden, Norway	Yes	Yes	No	Short film
2008	Jag förstår inte		Sweden	Yes	Yes	Yes	Short film
2010	Sebbe		Sweden	Yes	Yes	No	Directorial debut
2012	Easy Money II: Hard to Kill	Snabba cash II	Sweden	Yes	Yes	No
2013	The Day My Dad Was Shot	Gabriel och lasermannen	Sweden	Yes	Yes	Yes
2015	Boys	Pojkarna	Sweden	No	Yes	No	Short film^[7]
2016	London Has Fallen		United States	Yes	No	No
2018	Proud Mary		United States	Yes	No	No

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "Babak Najafi". Swedish Film Database. Swedish Film Institute. Archived from the original on January 6, 2016. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Svensson, Karin (March 16, 2010). "Babak Najafi vill visa känslor". Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved December 28, 2015.
^ "Svensk film glänste i Berlin". Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). February 21, 2010. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
^ "Prizes & Honours 2010". Berlin International Film Festival. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
^ "London Has Fallen reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
^ "London Has Fallen (2016)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
^ "Boys". 9 September 2015 – via www.imdb.com.