Born in Tehran, Samira is the daughter of director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. She got her first taste of the cinema when she was eight, playing a cameo role as a little girl in her father's film Bicycleran (1987). After leaving school at 15 because she found the teachers incompetent, she began learning to make films, mostly by watching and assisting her father but also in a film course at a private school. She directed two short videos, a drama entitled "Desert" and a documentary entitled "Style in Painting." In 1998, she worked as an assistant to her father on his film Sokout (1998) (The Silence), which was shown at the 1998 Montréal World Film Festival. Her first film was Sib (1998), which was a hit at many international film festivals. She was also the youngest member of the jury at the Locarno International Film Festival in 1998. Her second film, Takhté siah (2000), received major acclaim throughout the world and picked up a prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Her third film, Panj é asr (2003), and her segment in the anthology 11'09''01 - September 11 (2002) have established Ms. Makhmalbaf's place as a major talent in Iranian New Wave cinema and on the international film circuit.