Jafar Panahi

Jafar Panahi

Still: No Bears
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)