Jafar Panahi

After completing his film studies, Jafar PANAHI (1960, Iran) became assistant to Abbas Kiarostami, his mentor and source of inspiration. Panahi rarely uses professional actors and his style moves between documentary and neorealism. Typical of his work is a critical attitude towards class differences and the position of minorities and women in Iran. As a result, his films are rarely screened in Iran. He won the Caméra d’Or for best debut film with The White Balloon (1995) and won the Golden Lion in Venice with The Circle (2000). Offside was awarded the Silver Bear and the Jury Grand Prix at the Berlinale in 2006. In 2010, Jafar Panahi was handed a six-year prison sentence and a 20-year ban on making or directing any films, writing screenplays, giving any form of interview with Iranian or foreign media, or leaving the country. Panahi nevertheless managed to make a number of films and to smuggle these out of the country. No Bears (2022), selected for IFFR 2023, is his fifth feature in defiance of the ban.
Filmography
Yarali bashlar/Les têtes blessées (1988, short), Negah-e dovom/Deuxième regard (1989, short), Kish (1991, short), Akharin emtehan/Dernière épreuve (1992, short), Doust/The Friend (1995, short), Badkonak-e sefid/The White Balloon (1995), Ayneh/The Mirror (1997), Ardekoul (1997, short), Dayereh/The Circle (2000), Talaye sorgh/Crimson Gold (2003), Offside (2006), Untying the Knot (2007, short), The Accordion (2010, short), In film nist/This Is Not a Film (2011, doc), Pardé/Closed Curtain (2013), Taxi/Taxi Tehran (2015), Khers Nist/No Bears (2022)
Jafar Panahi at IFFR
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Hit the Road
Slightly absurdist portrait of a chaotic family on a road trip, but what is their destination? Irresistible Iranian debut, winner Best Film in Lond
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Offside
Docu-drama about Iranian women who are mad about football but the law always puts them offside. What is real and what is not? Ninety minutes sittin
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The Circle
Panahi focuses his camera on the problems of women in the bottom layer of Iranian society, in an impressively realistic film. Winner of the Golden
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Crimson Gold
Not to be missed: how a breathless pizza delivery boy with a heart of gold gets in the chasm between rich and poor in Teheran. Micro realism on a m
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The Silence Between Two Thoughts
How messages from hell can taunt heaven with their beauty. In a godforsaken landscape, a simple executioner does his work. Then he has to marry a w
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The White Balloon
Last December, Jafar Panahi and his fellow filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof were sentenced by a Revolutionary Court to six years imprisonment. They were
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The White Meadows
Last December, Mohammad Rasoulof and his fellow filmmaker Jafar Panahi were sentenced by a Revolutionary Court to six years imprisonment. They were
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The White Balloon
Last December, Jafar Panahi and his fellow filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof were sentenced by a Revolutionary Court to six years imprisonment. They were