The China Mail - Jafar Panahi: Iran's dissident director who lives for cinema

The 64-year-old is a symbol of artistic defiance who repeatedly challenges his country's strict censorship laws to produce movies about Iran's social and cultural struggles.

His latest production "It Was Just an Accident" tells the story of five formerly imprisoned Iranians who are confronted with a man they believe to have been their torturer in jail.

Shot in secret, it is partly inspired by Panahi's own experiences behind bars following his most recent near seven-month prison term in 2022-2023 which ended with a hunger strike.

"I'm alive as long as I'm making films. If I'm not making films, then what happens to me no longer matters," he told AFP in an interview last week.

He has won a host of prizes at European film festivals and showcased his debut film "The White Balloon" in Cannes in 1995 which won an award for best first feature.

Saturday's win is his highest honour yet and was presented to him in person on his first visit to Cannes in 15 years.

- 20-year ban -

In 2010, Panahi was banned from making movies and leaving the country after supporting mass anti-government protests a year earlier and making a series of films that critiqued the state of modern Iran.

Convicted of "propaganda against the system", he was sentenced to six years in jail but served only two months behind bars before being released on bail.

In the years that followed, Iranian authorities appeared content to turn a blind eye to his failure to toe the line, as long as his films did not appear overtly political.

He continued to make films, however, and his efforts to smuggle them out to foreign distributors and film festivals became the stuff of legend.

A year after being handed a 20-year ban on filmmaking he dispatched a documentary with the cheeky title "This is Not a Film" to the Cannes Festival on a flash drive stashed in a cake.

His 2015 movie "Taxi" featured him acting as a taxi driver and was shot entirely in a car, allowing him to avoid the ever-watchful eyes of Iranian police while filming.

His conversations with a cross-section of Iranians that come aboard -- a lawyer barred from practising her trade, a badly-injured man who is making his will on the backseat -- provided rich insights into everyday life in the Islamic republic.

- Jail material -

The tolerance of Panahi's work ended in July 2022 when he was re-arrested in connection with protests by a group of filmmakers.

He was ordered to serve out the sentence that had been hanging over him since 2010 in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, but was released nearly seven months later.

He said he had used some of his conversations with fellow inmates as inspiration for the script of "It Was Just an Accident", which he wrote himself.

"When you put (an artist) in prison, you're handing them an opportunity, giving them material, ideas, opening up a whole new world," he said in Cannes.

The core of the allegorical film examines the moral dilemma faced by people if they are given opportunity to take revenge on their oppressors.

"We chose a range of characters, from violent to non-violent, from a simple man to someone completely detached from such concerns," he told AFP.

"Through their actions and reactions, we reach -- or perhaps fail to reach -- a conclusion about what the right path might be."

- 'Pressure' -

A child of the Tehran slums, Panahi is a leading exponent of Iranian New Wave cinema, alongside Abbas Kiarostami, whom he served as an assistant early in his career.

In keeping with the movement, his films focus on the social realities of his homeland and give pride of place to non-professional actors.

After "The White Balloon", he was given the second-place jury prize in Cannes in 2003 for "Blood and Gold" and best screenplay in 2018 for his roadmovie "3 Faces".

He said he planned to return to Iran after this year's festival despite the risks for him.

He revealed on Wednesday that he and his cast had faced "pressure" since "It Was Just an Accident" was selected at Cannes, with several team members called in for questioning.

Panahi has a film-making son who is following in his foot steps.

Panah Panahi presented his first feature, "Hit the Road", in 2021 in a section for young directors.

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