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Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been jailed, banned from traveling, placed under house arrest and ordered to stop making films for 20 years. And, yet, Panahi has continued to make films. Many of them are ranked among the greatest of the century.
Most people would call this courageous. No shelter.
Panahi says, “My problem was that I was told not to make films. I had to make films. It’s that simple.” “I can come and claim that I make things for my people, for my people, for my country. No, I’m just looking for ways to make films.
“I looked for solutions and I found them.”
And, since first going to prison in 2009, Panahi has found some extraordinary solutions. He made “Taxi” (2015) largely inside a car and acted as the driver himself. “This Is Not a Film” (2011), he created on an iPhone in his living room.
To avoid authorities, 65-year-old Panahi often has to direct scenes from a distance, or change locations on an almost daily basis. His latest, “It Was Just an Accident”, was composed in secret after a seven-month prison sentence in Iran, which ended in 2023 after Panahi went on a hunger strike. He made the film in America this week, inspired by the stories told by his fellow prisoners.
From Evin Prison to Cannes
“It Was Just an Accident,” a harrowing revenge thriller, features a former prisoner tehran He thinks the man was his abusive interrogator in prison. But since he was blindfolded during interrogation – as was Panahi – he is not sure. With the man gagged and tied in the back of the van, he approaches the other former prisoners, and they argue over what to do.
“At the end of the day, I was a special person there,” Panahi said in a recent interview. ManhattanEvin said through an interpreter of his time in prison. “There were people who would go on hunger strikes for 20 or 30 days and no one would know about it. If I didn’t eat for two days, the whole world would know.”
Panahi has long been one of the most acclaimed filmmakers in cinema, but he has been absent from the world stage for more than 15 years. At that time, an open seat was sometimes reserved for him at film festivals with a “Zafar Panahi” placard.
Following his release in 2023, Panahi’s travel ban was lifted. He nevertheless produced “It Was Just an Accident” underground, refusing to request government approval for his script. In one instance, during a night shoot when Panahi was not present, his crew was detained by the police.
But for the first time in nearly two decades, Panahi is able to travel with his film. But bronze It won the Palme d’Or at the film festival in May. While accepting the award on stage he implored: “No one should dare tell us what kind of clothes we should wear, what we should do or what we should not do. Cinema is a society.”
Famous abroad, firmly rooted in Iran
With growing concerns over censorship in other countries, Panahi has been welcomed as a hero abroad. But new york Film festival, where his arrival was delayed due to visa complications due to a travel ban implemented in June for visitors from 12 countries, Martin Scorsese described Panahi as one of the most important filmmakers working.
Yet Panahi does not consider himself a hero and does not like being labeled a political filmmaker. It’s simpler for him.
“In cinema, it’s common for people to constantly look for reasons not to work,” says Panahi. “I kept saying: I’m a filmmaker. I have to make films. And making films is my right.”
Like other filmmakers working under authoritarian regimes, Panahi has tested oscar Regulations. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences mandates that all nominees for Best International Film must be submitted by one country. As expected, Iran did not choose “it was just an accident”. Instead, France made Panahi’s film, which was co-produced in France.
However, Panahi would like governments to be taken out of the process entirely.
“If we want to send a film to Cannes or Venice or anywhere else, we have no problem,” he says. “But as soon as we are talking about the Oscars, we have to go and request our governments.”
Nevertheless, Panahi has refused to flee Iran. He says, he loves his country and knows expatriate life is not for him. His friend and countryman, Mohammad Rasoulof, had fled Iran on foot last year to settle in Germany and premiere “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” theatrically in Cannes. But Panahi returned to Iran the day after winning the Palme.
“This made many people happy, but it also made government officials unhappy,” says Panahi. “State officials followed the same formula as before and treated us as spies for the CIA and Israel. On the other hand, many people, especially families of political prisoners and independent filmmakers, were very happy with my return.”
no moral lesson
Following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in 2022, a wave of protests spread against Iran’s mandatory hijab laws and its treatment of women. Panahi was jailed during the protests but he took a lot of inspiration from them. In “It Was Just an Accident”, several female actors appear in the film without hijab.
“I don’t really want to teach a morality lesson. I want to raise and generate questions,” says Panahi. “I want to ask what will happen in the future, and encourage people to think about whether we will respond to violence with violence.”
Panahi first saw the camera at the age of 10. He became fascinated by the ability to capture life around him and began saving up to buy his first camera. Although some of his friends preferred landscapes, he preferred to photograph people. “I found myself shooting on the streets,” he recalls.
In the decades since, nothing has really changed for Panahi.
Panahi says, “I did not create darkness. Darkness is there and the problem is with those who have created darkness.” “I’m just showing reality.”
At the New York Film Festival, Panahi remembered something her father told her when she was a child, which has stuck with her ever since: “You are not allowed to bow before anyone but God.”