Daryush Shokof
Daryush Shokof (born June 25, 1954 in Tehran as Ali Reza Shokoufandeh) is an Iranian philosopher, artist, independent filmmaker and writer who lives in Germany.
Life
Daryush Shokof immigrated to the United States in 1979. In the 1980s he studied physics and mathematics. He also studied at the New York Film Academy. In 1981 he took part in an art exhibition for the first time. This took place in the New York gallery Gorky. He had the first exhibition in Europe at the March gallery in Cologne.
Between 1981 and 2003 Shokof painted pictures which he was able to show in around 60 exhibitions worldwide. 20 solo and about 40 group exhibitions, including with Andy Warhol, Bruce Nauman, Jeff Koons, Chuck Close, Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Ruscha, Jim Dine, Robert Mapplethorpe, Louise Bourgeois, Rodney Graham, Heim Steinbach and John Chamberlain. His last retrospective with more than 100 paintings by Daryush Shokof was at Galerie 360 Degrees, a project by L'art Visit, in the building of the former Royal Railway Directorate 2003 in Berlin.
In 1990 he made his first experimental short film "Angels are Wired" in Prague. After a few more short films, he made his debut film "Seven Servants" with Anthony Quinn. The film was nominated for the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival in 1996 and won awards at other festivals such as Berlin, St. Petersburg, Toronto and Montreal. His film "Venussian Tabutasco" was founded in 2004 as part of the second Berlin Asia-Pacific Film Festival premiere (BAPFF) as a world premiere.
To date, Shokof has produced and directed eight feature films and more than ten short films. His film dramas "Hitler's Grave" and "Iran Zendan" were released in 2010.
On May 24, 2010, Shokof disappeared at Cologne Central Station, where he wanted to board a train to Paris. On June 5, 2010, he was at the Cologne Rhine discovered by passers-by. He said he had been kidnapped by four Arabic- speaking people who had locked him up and drugged him. After completion of the investigation informed the competent prosecutor Cologne in March 2011 that inconsistencies in the information Shokofs serious doubts about the alleged instances of kidnapping have raised. So there are no traces of drugs in the intensive forensic medical examinations or the like has been found at Shokof. The prosecutor refrained from filing a criminal complaint for simulating a crime.
Filmography (selection)
- 1990: Angels are Wired
- 1991: Dogs are not allowed
- 1996: Seven Servants
- 1997: Magass
- 2000: Tenussian Vaccuvasco
- 2003: She Would...
- 2003: Kiss, Long and Close
- 2004: Venussian Tabutasco
- 2005: A2Z
- 2006: Asudem
- 2007: Breathful
- 2007: Smoqing
- 2008: Epicalypse Now
- 2010: Iran Zendan
- 2011: Hitler's Grave
- 2012: Strange Stranger
- 2012: wordlessness
- 2012: Flushers
- 2012: Flushers 2
- 2012: Suicidal Girl
- 2015: poison works
- 2015: Directed by God
- 2015: para heaven and hell interview