Rakhshān Banietemad (Persian: رخشان بنی‌اعتماد‎, born April 3, 1954 in Tehran, Iran) is an internationally and critically acclaimed Iranian film director and screenwriter. She is widely considered a premier female director, and her films have been praised at international festivals as well as being popular with Iranian critics and audiences.[1] Her title as "First Lady of Iranian Cinema" is not only a reference to her prominence as a filmmaker, but also connotes her social role of merging politics and family in her work.[2]