“I think it’s the moment to ask everyone, all the Iranians with opinions different from others, in Iran and throughout the world … I’d like to ask them one thing: Put all the problems and differences aside. The most important thing is surely our country and the freedom of our country. Let us join forces. No one should dare tell us what kind of clothes we should wear, what we should do or what we should not do. The cinema is a society. Nobody is entitled to tell what we should or refrain from doing.” This statement, made by Jafar Panahi, winner of the Palme d’Or for his film It Was Just an Accident, was arguably the most powerful and heartfelt moment of the closing ceremony of the 78th Cannes Film Festival, on Saturday, May 24.
Imprisoned several times in Iran, banned from filmmaking for 20 years and forbidden from leaving the country for the past 14 years, Panahi, a prominent figure and disciple of Abbas Kiarostami, has created a remarkable body of work − much of it clandestine.
His new film depicts the confrontation between former political prisoners who unexpectedly meet their former torturer, and the moral dilemma sparked by this encounter. Even more than his previous works, this film is a direct attack on the repression that has intensified in Iran since the emergence of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement in 2022.
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