Arturo A. Valenzuela (born 23 January 1944) is a Chilean-American academic who was the United States Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs from November 5, 2009, until August 2011.
 His confirmation had been blocked by Senator Jim DeMint (R, SC) due to a dispute over President Barack Obama's approach to the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis.
 He previously served as Professor of Government and Director of the Center for Latin American Studies in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
 He was previously Professor of Political Science and Director of the Council on Latin American Studies at Duke University.
 In May 2011 it was reported that Valenzuela would be leaving his government post later that summer to return to his academic activities.
 He officially left office at the end of August 2011.
Afghanistan–United States relations can be traced to 1921 but the first contact between the two occurred further back in the 1830s when the first recorded person from the United States was visiting Afghanistan.
 In the last decade, Afghan-American relations have become stronger than ever before.
 Afghanistan and the United States have a very strong and friendly strategic partnership.
 In 2012, relations became even closer when the President of the United States, Barack Obama declared Afghanistan a Major non-NATO ally.
 According to a 2012 BBC poll, the U.S. was the most favored country in Afghanistan.
Arturo (1985 July 3, 2016) was a polar bear living in Mendoza Zoological Park in Mendoza, Argentina, the only polar bear living in the country.
 He was born in the United States and transferred to Argentina in 1993.
 His companion, a female named Pelusa, died of cancer in 2012.
 The living conditions of the cage Arturo resided in were controversial, as temperatures reach up to 40°C in Argentina, and the pool in Arturo's cage was only 20 inches deep.
 Animal rights activists had, in response, dubbed Arturo the "world's saddest animal" and promoted a petition to have him moved to Assiniboine Park Zoo, a zoo in Winnipeg, Canada.
 The petition was created by Laura Morales of Hamilton, Ontario.
 It gained considerable attention after the hashtag #Freearturo began trending on Twitter.
 Supporters of the petition also noted that a polar bear died in Buenos Aires in December 2012 due to excessive heat, and argued that Arturo exhibited symptoms of depression and other mental health problems.
Bahman Ghobadi (Persian: بهمن قبادی‎ ‎ ; Kurdish: به‌همه‌ن قوبادی / Behmen Qubadî) is an Iranian film director, producer and writer of Kurdish ethnicity.
 He was born on February 1, 1969 in Baneh, Kurdistan province.
 Ghobadi belongs to the "new wave" of Iranian cinema.
The Golden Shell (Spanish: "Concha de Oro" ; Basque: "Urrezko Maskorra" ) is the highest prize given to a competing film at the San Sebastián Film Festival.
 It was introduced in 1957.
 In 1953 and 1954, the highest prize had been called the Gran Premio.
 In 1955 and 1956 it was replaced by the Silver Shell.
 Five directors have won the Golden Shell twice: American director Francis Ford Coppola (in 1969 & 1984), Spanish director Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón (in 1982 & 1986), Mexican director Arturo Ripstein (in 1993 & 2000), Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi (in 2004 & 2006) and Spanish director Imanol Uribe (in 1994 & 1996).
Ashkan Kooshanejad, (Persian: اشکان کوشانژاد; born August 13, 1985) also known as Ash Koosha is an Iranian multi-instrumentalist composer, record producer, film director and futurist living in London, United Kingdom.
 He mainly plays synthesiser, bass and guitar.
 He played the lead role in an Iranian-Cannes jury prize winner docufiction film by director Bahman Ghobadi called "No One Knows About Persian Cats", which follows his band's story scouring the Iranian underground music scene trying to find musicians to play in a festival in the UK.
Philippines – United States relations (Filipino: "Ugnayang Pilipinas at Estados Unidos") are bilateral relations between the United States of America and its former colony, the Republic of the Philippines.
 The relationship between the United States and the Philippines has historically been strong and has been described as a Special Relationship.
 The current Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, however, is supportive of a foreign policy that is less dependent on the United States, favoring one that prioritizes closer relations with China instead.
 The Philippines is one of the oldest Asian partners of the U.S. and a strategically major non-NATO ally.
 The United States was consistently ranked as one of the Philippines' favorite nations in the world, with 90% of Filipinos viewing the U.S. and 91% viewing Americans favorably in 2002, 90% of Filipinos viewing U.S. influence positively in 2011, 85% of Filipinos viewing the U.S. and Americans favorably in 2013, and 92% of Filipinos viewing the U.S. favorably in 2015, and 94% having confidence in United States president, Barack Obama, making the Philippines the most pro-American country in the world.
 On October 20, 2016, the President of the Philippines announced a "separation" from the United States, both militarily and economically, in favor of alliances with China and Russia.
The Jesusland map is an Internet meme created shortly after the 2004 U.S. presidential election that satirizes the red/blue states scheme by dividing the United States and Canada into "The United States of Canada" and "Jesusland".
 The map implies the existence of a fundamental political divide between contiguous northern and southern regions of North America, the former including both the socially liberal Canada and the West Coast, Northeastern, and Upper Midwestern states, and suggests that these states are closer in spirit to Canada than to the more conservative regions of their own country.
 (The meme ignores conservative regions of Canada that might not want to join the hypothetical new country.)
 The Freakonomics blog opined that the map reflected the "despair, division, and bitterness" of the election campaign and results. "
Slate" also covered the image and posited that it might be the reason the Canadian immigration website received six times its usual page views the day after the election.
Arturo Toscanini (] ; March 25, 1867 – January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor.
 He was one of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and of the 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his eidetic memory.
 He was at various times the music director of La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and the New York Philharmonic.
 Later in his career he was appointed the first music director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1937–54), and this led to his becoming a household name (especially in the United States) through his radio and television broadcasts and many recordings of the operatic and symphonic repertoire.
 Toscanini had absolute pitch.
Arturo Ripstein y Rosen (born December 13, 1943) is a Mexican film director.

Question: Which director is from a country closer to the United States, Arturo Ripstein or Bahman Ghobadi?
Answer: Arturo Ripstein