Question: Based on the prompt, who is one of the best known Iranian directors?
About the article "Iran", section "Popular culture and cinema".

Candidate passages:
The prompt (sometimes prompter) in a theatre is traditionally the person who prompts or cues actors when they forget their lines or neglect to move on the stage to where they are supposed to be situated.
Nowadays, many of the earlier duties of the prompter are undertaken by the stage manager, who will have a copy of the script called the prompt book.
This is the most definitive version of the script for any one performance, and will contain details of all cues, with their precise timings with respect to the action on stage.
This allows the prompt to direct lighting, sound, flying effects and scene changes during a show.
The prompt book also often contains blocking notes, so that the prompt is always aware of the intended positions and movements of all the actors on stage at any given time.
In professional and most high-quality community theatre productions, the prompt is never used during a performance to instruct actors if they forget a line or movement, only during a rehearsal.
If prompting is absolutely necessary, it can be done very quietly by another actor on-stage.
The prompt is located on the stage, in the prompt corner or "prompt side.
"In Elizabethan theatre the function of prompting was filled by the Book-Holder, who was also in charge of props and calls.  
Iranian women have played an important role in gaining international recognition for Iranian art and in particular Iranian cinema.
Since the rise of the Iranian "New Wave" of Persian cinema, Iran has produced record numbers of film school graduates; each year more than 20 new directors, many of them women, make their debut films.
In the last two decades, the percentage of Iranian film directors who are women has exceeded the percentage of women film directors in most Western countries.
The success of the pioneering director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad suggests that many women directors in Iran were working hard on films long before director Samira Makhmalbaf made the headlines.
Internationally recognized figures in Persian women's cinema are Tahmineh Milani, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, Zahra Dowlatabadi, Niki Karimi, Samira Makhmalbaf, Mahin Oskouei, Pari Saberi, Hana Makhmalbaf, Pouran Rakhshandeh, Shirin Neshat, Sepideh Farsi, Maryam Keshavarz, Yassamin Maleknasr, and Sara Rastegar.
Iranian writer-director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad is probably Iran's best known and certainly most prolific female filmmaker.
She has established herself as the elder stateswoman of Iranian cinema with documentaries and films about social pathology.
One of the best-known female film directors in the country today is Samira Makhmalbaf, who directed her first film, "The Apple", when she was only 17 years old.
Samira Makhmalbaf won the 2000 Cannes Jury Prize for "Blackboards", a film about the trials of two traveling teachers in Kurdistan.
In Persian literature one can find references to women as far back as Pre-Islamic times.
In some cases, women are mentioned as the potential force behind the failure or success of men.
For example Dehkhoda states that "women are the taste of life" (زن نمک زندگیست), but then warns that some Men may find this taste too strong to bear (کام مرد از این جهت شور است).
In verse, Sa'di rephrases this as:A bad wife in a good man's home,can bring hell down to this Earth.
The honorable, obedient and noble woman,can turn the vagabond into a king.
But many texts elevate the status of women in their writings by using the word "lady" (بانو) instead of "woman" (زن) in their verses, whether narratives or anecdotes.
For example in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh one reads:Kissed the earth at her feet he did, the great hero.
Called onto her he did: "oh highest of all the ladies".
Numerous examples from other poets can be seen as well:It is a tradition of the free to bring Norouz giftsfor the lady of our royalty.---"Khaqani"Have you not heard that dust turns into goldby the work of the Man and the Lady of the House?---"Naser Khosrow"And many creators of classical verse and prose were women themselves as well.
One can mention Qatran Tabrizi, Rabia Balkhi, Táhirih, Simin Behbahani, Simin Daneshvar, Parvin E'tesami, Forough Farrokhzad, Mahsati and Mina Assadi in this group to name nine of them. 
The musical culture of Persia, while distinct, is closely related to other musical systems of the West and Central Asia.
It has also affinities to the music cultures of the Indian subcontinent, to a certain degree even to those of Africa, and, in the period after 1850 particularly, to that of Europe.
Its history can be traced to some extent through these relationships.
Like that of most of the world’s cultures, the music of Persia has depended on oral/aural transmission and learning.
Iranian cinema has thrived in modern Iran, and many Iranian directors have garnered worldwide recognition for their work.
Iranian movies have won over three hundred awards in the past twenty-five years including Oscars.
One of the best-known directors is Abbas Kiarostami.
Iranian is of, from, or related to the nation of Iran (Persia).
Iranian who is a person from the nation of Iran, or of Iranian descent.
For more information about the people of Iran see also Demographics of Iran  * Iranian citizens abroad * For specific persons, see List of Iranians  Iranian peoples, an ethnic and linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly in Iranian plateau and beyond in central-, southern-, and southwestern Asia  One of the Iranian languages.
See also Languages of Iran  Iranian.com, also known as "The Iranian" and "The Iranian Times"  
Mira Nair, Aparna Sen, Deepa Mehta, Gurinder Chadha, Manju Borah are among the best known Indian women filmmakers, partly because of commercial success of their films.
However there are a number of other Indian women filmmakers who have made some remarkable films that address a variety of issues.
Other noteworthy Indian women filmmakers include Nisha Ganatra, Sonali Gulati, Indu Krishnan, Eisha Marjara, Pratibha Parmar, Nandini Sikand, Ish Amitoj Kaur, Harpreet Kaur, Leena Manimekalai and Shashwati Talukdar.
In Japan for a long time Kinuyo Tanaka was the only woman to make feature films.
She was able to do this against fierce resistance because she enjoyed a status as star actress.
Using genre conventions her films showed women "with a humorous affection rare in Japanese cinema of the period" (Philip Kemp).
Currently, the best-known women filmmaker of Japan may be Naomi Kawase; 2007 she won the Grand Prix in Cannes, while Memoirs of a fig tree, the directorial debut of well-known actrice Kaori Momoi, saw the light of the day in 2006.
The sociocritical adventure film "" by Shimako Sato's was a breakthrough into a bigger budget; it starred Takeshi Kaneshiro and was released all over the world.
Similarly in South Korea, Im Soon-rye landed a box-office-hit with "Forever the Moment", while So Yong Kim got some attention for her film "In Between Days" and Lee Suk-Gyung made the women-themed and subtly feminist "The Day After".
One of the important fifth-generation filmmakers of China is Ning Ying, who won several prices for her films; in contrast to the controversy over some of her sixth-generation colleagues such as Zhang Yimou, who got accused of having sold out their ideals, Ning Ying has gone on to realize small independent films with themes strongly linked to Chinese daily life, therefore also being a link between the 5th and 6th generation.
The Sixth Generation has seen a growing number of women filmmakers such as Liu Jiayin, best known for her film "Oxhide", and Xiaolu Guo; in 2001 Li Yu caused quite a stir with her lesbian love story "Fish and Elephant".
The most famous women filmmaker from Hong Kong is undoubtedly Ann Hui, who has made a wide array of films ranging from the wuxia genre to drama; Ivy Ho and Taiwanese Sylvia Chang also are known names in the Hong Kong industry, while in Taiwan queer filmmaker Zero Chou has gotten acclaim on festivals around the world.
Yasmin Ahmad (1958-2009) is considered one of the most important directors of Malaysia; originally a commercial director, she switched to feature films relatively late and gained international acclaim while also stirring controversy among conservatives in her home country.
In Pakistan, where film industry is not very big, some prominent and brilliant directors are working.
Conventional film industry has directors like Sangeeta and Shamim Ara who are making films with feminist themes.
Specially on Sangeeta's credit there are some issue-based films.
Now some new directors from television industry are also coming towards the medium of films.
Sabiha Sumar and Mehreen Jabbar are two new names for films in Pakistan and are making brilliant films.
Both of these directors has made films which are not only issue based addressing national issues but also these films have won international awards at different film festivals.
Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, a writer and a director, is probably Iran's best known and certainly most prolific female filmmaker.
She has established herself as the elder stateswoman of Iranian cinema with documentaries and films dealing with social pathology.
Contemporary Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad (1935—1967) was also a filmmaker.
Her best known film is The House is black (Khane siah ast, 1962), a documentary of a leper colony in the north of Iran.
Samira Makhmalbaf directed her first film "The Apple" when she was only 17 years old and won Cannes Jury Prize in 2000 for her following film "The Blackboard".