For the primary time in over twenty years, acclaimed Iranian director Jafar Panahi spoke to the press on the Cannes Movie Pageant — not remotely from home arrest in Tehran however as a free man. On the press convention for his competitors movie It Was Simply an Accident, Panahi mirrored on his long-awaited return to the Croisette and the load of representing those that stay silenced in Iran.
This yr’s Cannes marks Panahi’s first look on the pageant since 2003, when Crimson Gold received the Un Sure Regard prize.
Panahi has solely lately been in a position to journey, after, in February 2023, he was launched from jail, following a starvation strike. A 2010 conviction, which banned him from journey in addition to from filmmaking, was overturned. Immediately, Panahi may work and transfer as he wished.
“It took a while for me to get again on my toes and get again to work,” stated Panahi. “And this movie [It Was Just An Accident] is the outcome.”
It Was Simply an Accident is one among his most politically direct works so far. Filmed in secret in Iran and that includes unveiled feminine characters in defiance of the nation’s hijab legislation, the film follows a gaggle of former state prisoners who debate whether or not to take revenge on the person who tortured them.
“In a means, I’m not the one who made this movie. It’s the Islamic Republic that made this movie, as a result of they put me in jail,” Panahi advised THR in a long-ranging interview forward of the movie’s premiere. “Possibly as soon as they see this movie, they’ll understand they shouldn’t put artists in jail…perhaps in the event that they need to cease us being so subversive, they need to cease placing us in jail.”
Within the press convention, Panahi stated his movies are “at all times impressed by the atmosphere I discover myself in,” and earlier than jail, his atmosphere was Iranian society however that “when you’ve been despatched to jail, inevitably you’re influenced and impacted by what you observe and what you see.”
One of many movie’s stars, Mariam Afshari, stated movie is “a option to present us what we’re going by way of, our battle.”
The movie’s naturalistic type and quiet rigidity recall Panahi’s earlier work — together with The Circle and Offside — and stand in distinction to the extra self-reflexive, constrained initiatives he made whereas formally banned from working, comparable to This Is Not a Movie and Taxi. However although it eschews overt autobiography, its themes of imprisonment, trauma, and resistance resonate deeply with the director’s private historical past.
Panahi recalled being held in abysmal circumstances in jail, in a 5 by 8 foot cell, “the place I hardly have room to lie down or stroll round. To go to the bathroom I needed to ring a bell,” he stated. “I used to be allowed to go to the bathroom 2-3 occasions a day. To exit of my cell, I needed to have my eyes blindfolded. Solely in the bathroom may you take away the blindfold.”
Throughout his imprisonment, Panahi stated, he was continually interrogated, usually for 8 hours a day. “As soon as, it was time for prayer and my interrogator went out to prayer after which got here again to the interrogation.”
However Panahi stated many, many others suffered way more. He famous his co-screenwriter has been despatched again to jail. “It’s the Iranian one that has spent the previous 40 years in captivity,” he famous.
Regardless of preventing many years of censorship, abuse and an official ban, Panahi stated he by no means considered giving up.
“Throughout my 20-year ban, even my closest associates had given up hope that I might ever make movies once more,” Panahi stated. “However I appeared for options, I stated to myself I didn’t know find out how to do the rest…I can’t change a lightbulb, I can’t work a screwdriver. I don’t know find out how to do something besides make movies.”
Just like the movies made throughout his official ban, It Was Simply An Accident was made in secret, with out the approval of the Iranian regime.
The movie’s premiere in Cannes on Tuesday drew a rapturous reception, and an 8-minute standing ovation, with few dry eyes in the home. Panahi delivered a transferring speech, paying tribute to the various Iranian administrators, actors, and activists nonetheless imprisoned or banned from working within the wake of the Femme Liberté protests.
Regardless of the response of the Iranian regime to his new movie, Panahi stated he intends to maintain up the battle.
“I behave similar to different Iranians, I’m not a particular case in any matter. The Iranian girls are forbidden to exit with out a scarf however nonetheless they accomplish that,” he stated, “I’m not doing something extra heroic. As quickly as I end my work right here I’ll return to Iran, the following day. And I’ll ask myself what’s my subsequent movie going to be.”