Venice closes with a film by Jafar Panahi, the filmmaker imprisoned in Iran

a film by Jafar Panahi, who is detained in Iran for protesting the arrest of two colleagues, closed the competition on Friday. Winner of the Golden Lion of Venice for The circle (2000) and the Golden Bear in Berlin for Tehran taxi (2015), could not participate in the showbut compete with bears don’t existemblem of a form of terror with which people can be cornered.

Two parallel love stories, one in Tehran, the capital, and the other in a town on the border with Turkey, from where a director (played by Panahi himself) directs his team via the Internet, end up describing their traditions and the same contradictions of those who are forced to remain locked up in their own country.

Applauded when it was shown to the press, the film respects the director’s style by mixing stories and at the same time offers a portrait of the difficulties he goes through to make a film without ending up in prison or forced to flee forever.

public letter

“We create works that are not commissions, which is why those in power see us as criminals,” Panahi wrote in a public letter to the Venice Film Festival. The dissident artist, one of his country’s most awarded filmmakers, was arrested and sentenced in 2010 to six years in prison with a 20-year ban on directing or writing films, traveling or even speaking to the media.

However, he continued to work and live in Iran. He was found guilty of “anti-regime propaganda” after supporting the 2009 protest movement against the re-election of ultra-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of the Islamic Republic. On 11 July Panahi was arrested as he entered the Tehran prosecutor’s office to follow up the case of his colleague Mohammad Rasoulof, who had been detained since 8 July.

“The history of Iranian cinema testifies to the constant and active presence of independent directors who have fought against censorship and to ensure the survival of that art. Some have been forbidden to make films, others have been forced into exile or they have been reduced to total isolation, “the director denounced in his letter.

His compatriot Vahid Jalilvand, author of the second Iranian film in competition at the Festival and present at the Lido, also expressed his support. “No artist or intellectual should be in prison, in Iran or anywhere else in the world,” he complained in an interview with the AFP.

The subtle game of cat and mouse between the director and Islamic authorities has allowed Panahi to continue filming so far, although the situation has now worsened with his imprisonment. “Free Jafar!” the director of the exhibition asked this Friday, Alberto Barbera, who fears retaliation against the artist. “We are afraid of what could happen to him”, confessed Barbera.

While cinema is silenced within that country, its prestige grows abroad for its creative and current cinema.

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