AllMovie

Fourteen-year-old Iranian filmmaker Hana Makhmalbaf directs the digital video documentary The Joy of Madness, a behind-the-scenes look at her sister Samira Makhmalbaf's film At Five in the Afternoon. A child of the Makhmalbaf Film House production company, Hana manages to capture the intense difficulties of casting her sister's film in Afghanistan. While trying to exist in poverty-stricken post-war Kabul, the actors are also afraid of what will happen to them if they appear in such a film. Much of the conflict involves the casting of schoolteacher Agheleh Rezaie to play the lead. The musical score is provided by Mohammad Reza Darvishi. The Joy of Madness was shown at the 2003 Venice Film Festival.