Director Panah Panahi is in Paris to promote the film of his father, Jafar Panahi, a big name in Iranian cinema, imprisoned since July 2022 in his country. Funny and serious at the same time, No bears echoes the news in the Islamic Republic of Iran where the protest movement continues unabated, despite an increasing deadly repression. Maintenance.
RFI : No bears received the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival this year. It deals with subjects such as exile and the deprivation of freedoms. Your father, Jafar Panahi, completed this film shortly before his incarceration in July. If you had to describe this film in one sentence, what would you say? ?
Panah Panahi: It’s an autobiographical film – like all of Jafar Panahi’s previous films – which talks about the restrictions imposed on people, filmmakers, actors and artists in general.
Jafar Panahi, whom the Tehran regime forbids from making films, also stages himself in his own role, that of a director wanting to shoot a love story in a village in the north-west of Iran, but which faces many obstacles. Is this film, as usual in the works of Jafar Panahi, a form of fight for freedom ?
Precisely, it is the obsession of every artist living in a closed society. When the regime orders restrictions, the artist absolutely wants to speak up and make sure that others can hear him. We often ask Jafar Panahi why he always talks about restrictions, limits, why he doesn’t show, in his films, the positive things that happen in society. Jafar Panahi responds by emphasizing that the role of the artist is not to praise what is positive, what is free in society. Its role is rather to show the limits and restrictions, to overcome them by showing them and to create hope within society. It is a contribution to a better future.
Exile is a recurring theme in contemporary Iranian cinema. While some artists decide to flee the regime, Jafar Panahi and other colleagues choose to resist by remaining in the country, despite oppression, censorship and restrictions on freedoms.
Given that with this regime, nothing can be done, because it neither arouses nor gives any hope, everyone asks themselves this existential question: should they stay or leave?
Jafar Panahi wants to stay and show the reality of the country. It is in this sense that Ano bear is autobiographical. Exile is, in fact, a recurring subject in society, it has even become an obsession among most filmmakers in Iran. Regime officials themselves offered Jafar Panahi to leave, but he refused to leave the country.
Your father, Jafar Panahi, 62, is one of the leading figures of the Iranian New Wave. He was arrested several times and imprisoned last July for rebelling against the arrest of two of his fellow filmmakers : Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Aleahmad. Do you see him often ? How is he ?
Before I left Iran three weeks ago, I could see him once a week. I spoke to him on the phone every day. But as he does not have internet access in the prison, he is very worried about what is currently happening in the country. We then try to transmit to him, by telephone, information on current events.
What are your father’s conditions of detention ?
All the inmates of Evin prison in Tehran are intellectuals, poets, environmental activists, filmmakers. Jafar Panahi is surrounded by people of culture, it is the specificity of this prison. But we must not forget that he has no contact with the outside world. Being incarcerated in Evin these days is all the same as if you were attending a university that is very recognized in the world, because of the presence of people from the cultural milieu. [Sourire.]
In 2010, Jafar Panahi was sentenced to six years in prison for “ propaganda against the regime Iranian, a sentence later commuted to house arrest. Which allowed him to make films clandestinely like this is not a movie in 2011, Taxi Tehran (winner of the Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin Film Festival) in 2015. No bears, his new film that you are presenting in Paris, was also shot on the sly. Tell us about the shooting conditions.
The authorities banned him from making films for twenty years, but Jafar Panahi could not accept such a sentence. As he did not recognize the legality of this conviction, he told himself that he had to continue his work as a director.
How did he circumvent this prohibition to No bears and also for his previous films? What were the subterfuges ?
Since his films weren’t screened in Iran – and he knew they never would be – he didn’t impose any restrictions on himself. He did what needed to be done, he said what needed to be said.
Since everyone avoided working with him and he couldn’t make his films in the streets, outdoors, he found this solution: make films in a closed environment, with a limited setting. Consequently, the stages are restricted, with rudimentary elements, since he could not shoot with an extended group in the public space.
You worked with your father on the set of several of his feature films, including Three Faces (Screenplay Prize at the Cannes Film Festival) in 2018. What has changed, this time, with No bears ?
As there was a lot of pressure on Jafar Panahi and restrictions imposed by the regime in Tehran, it is clear that his gaze is not one of hope, but more of despair. However, it is not despair towards Iranian society, but rather towards the regime, i.e. his despair comes from the regime and not from society. . He still keeps hope in society, in his country.
Iranian authorities prohibit your father from making films, speaking to the media and also from traveling abroad, which did not prevent his productions from leaving the country. Is it a form of tolerance on the part of the regime ? A kind of game of cat and mouse ?
The regime does not really know what to do with artists like Jafar Panahi. It prohibits the release of its films from the territory. But thanks to the internet, his films can travel outside Iran, via the download.
No bears was only due to be released in theaters in France on January 4, 2023. But the distributor, ARP Sélection, has decided to bring the date forward to November 23 due to current events in Iran, where the protest movement has continued unabated since the death of the young Mahsa Amini on September 16, despite a murderous repression which is accentuated. What is your view, Panah Panahi, on these demonstrations of an unprecedented scale since those of 2019 against the rise in the price of gasoline ?
I take a hopeful look at events in Iran. If I had been asked this question two months ago, that is to say before the current uprising, I would not have said the same thing. Because, like most people, I was desperate. Two months before, I had to deal with a society full of despair, but which did not manifest it in broad daylight. All of this was the cause of this outburst of anger, which led us to see our own reality. Then, this anger turned into love, into an extraordinary unity. Since we have nothing more to lose, we are no longer afraid. Our feelings and values, which were suppressed by the Iranian regime, are now coming to the surface.
From now on, the people make it clear that they yearn for freedom.
Absolutely. We have reached a point of no return!
In several cities, we hear slogans against the regime, we see images of women removing and burning their headscarves during demonstrations. Despite the trials of those arrested and facing the death penalty, the protests continue unabated. For how much longer, do you think?
Even if the regime succeeds in suppressing this uprising, there will be others in the future. If we look at the last forty-three years, we can see that the space-times between the uprisings have been shortened.
So you believe in regime change in Iran?
Yes, I believe it one hundred percent. I can’t say how soon. In a year, very important events will certainly occur. When a society reaches such a point of no return, there is no longer any possibility of reconciling this society with the regime in place.
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