Acclaimed Iranian filmmaker collects awards in prison
When Jafar Panahi’s "No Bears" won a prize at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, cast members had to accept it on his behalf, as the dissident Iranian director has been behind bars in Tehran since July.
The 79th edition of the Venice Film festival wrapped Sept. 10 with yet another prize for internationally acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, whose latest movie was a contender for the Golden Lion. It ended up with the Special Jury Prize, the third most prestigious after the Golden Lion and the Grand Jury. Panahi could not make it to the venue in person, as he was in prison in the Iranian capital Tehran.
"No Bears" is the last in the string of Panahi’s award-winning films, all shot in secret in Iran over the past decade. Like some of his previous films, "No Bears" is a mixture of documentary and drama, a film within a film about a director trying to make a movie in Turkey. He leads his team remotely from a border village in Iran, because he is banned from leaving the country.
The movie found an overwhelmingly positive response from the critics, with some praising it as Panahi’s best movie after "Taxi" (2015), which won the top prize from the 65th Berlin International Film Festival. The clues and similarities interwoven in the story of "No Bears" have led many viewers to conclude the film is primarily an allegorical autobiography.
A chair with his name was left empty during the press conference in Venice to protest his imprisonment. The festival’s artistic director Alberto Barbera, jury president Julianne Moore and other members took part in a flash mob to speak in his defense.
