Who is Jafar Panahi?

Jafar Panahi is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film editor, commonly identified with the Iranian New Wave film movement. After several years of making short films and working as an assistant director for fellow Iranian film-maker Abbas Kiarostami, Panahi achieved international recognition with his feature film debut, Badkonake sefid (1995). The film won the Caméra d'Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, the first major award won by an Iranian film at Cannes. Panahi was quickly recognized as one of the most influential film-makers in Iran. Although his films were often banned in his own country, he continued to receive international acclaim from film theorists and critics and won numerous awards, including the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival for Ayneh (1997), the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for Dayereh (2000), and the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for Afsaid (2006). His films are known for their humanistic perspective on life in Iran, often focusing on the hardships of children, the impoverished, and women. Hamid Dabashi has written, "Panahi does not do as he is told - in fact he has made a successful career in not doing as he is told."

After several years of conflict with the Iranian government over the content of his films (including several short-term arrests), Panahi was arrested in March 2010 and later charged with propaganda against the Iranian government. Despite support from filmmakers, film organizations, and human rights organizations from around the world, in December 2010 Panahi was sentenced to a six-year jail sentence and a 20-year ban on directing any movies, writing screenplays, giving any form of interview with Iranian or foreign media, or from leaving the country except for medical treatment or making the Hajj pilgrimage. While awaiting the result of an appeal he made In film nist (2011), a documentary feature in the form of a video diary in spite of the legal ramifications of his arrest. It was smuggled out of Iran in a flash drive hidden inside a cake and shown at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. In February 2013 the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival showed Pardeh (2013) by Panahi and Kambuzia Partovi in competition; Panahi won the Silver Bear for Best Script. Panahi's new film Taxi (2015) premiered in competition at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2015 and won Golden Bear, the prize awarded for the best film in the festival.

Overview

Nicknames
Coco

Trivia

  • Arrested on March 1, 2010 at his home along with Mohammad Rasoulof and Mehdi Pourmoussa. Amongst detained were 15 others, but released 48 hours later. Panahi's arrest was confirmed by the government, but charges were not specified. Filmmakers Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone, Steven Soderbergh, Paul Thomas Anderson, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Francis Ford Coppola, Jim Jarmusch, Ang Lee, Richard Linklater, Terrence Malick, Jonathan Demme, Curtis Hanson, Michael Moore, Paul Schrader, Ken Loach, Bertrand Tavernier, Agnès Varda, Frederick Wiseman, Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, Jon Jost, Walter Salles, Claude Lanzmann, Olivier Assayas, Romain Goupil, James Schamus, Amos Gitai, Patricio Guzmán, Danièle Thompson, Xavier Beauvois, Tony Gatlif, Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Kiumars Poorahmad, actors Robert De Niro, Robert Redford, Brian Cox, Pierre Richard and Mehdi Hashemi, actresses Isabelle Huppert, Anouk Aimée, Josiane Balasko, Fatemeh Motamed-Arya and Golshifteh Farahani, film critics Roger Ebert, Amy Taubin, David Denby, Kenneth Turan, Todd McCarthy, Lisa Schwarzbaum, David Ansen, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Jean-Michel Frodon and Angelika Artyukh, Federation of European Film Directors, European Film Academy, Asia Pacific Screen Awards, NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema), Berlin International Film Festival's director Dieter Kosslick, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Rotterdam International Film Festival's director Rutger Wolfson, Febiofest's program director Stefan Uhrik, FIPRESCI and Toronto Film Critics Association have called for his release. France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Culture and Communications Frédéric Mitterrand, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, Canadian government, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned the arrest. After more than a week in captivity in Ward 209 of the Evin Prison, Panahi was finally allowed to make a call. On March 17, 2010 Rasoulof and Pourmoussa were released. The next day, Panahi was allowed to have visitors, including his lawyer. On April 14, 2010, Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance said that Panahi was arrested because he "was making a film against the regime and it was about the events that followed the [2009] election." On May 25, 2010 Panahi was finally released on a $200,000 bail.
  • Symbolic guest of honor of Cannes Film Festival in 2010.
  • His two films, The Circle (2000) and Crimson Gold (2003) were banned by the Islamic government of Iran.
  • On December 20, 2010, Panahi was sentenced by the Revolutionary Court to six years in prison and barred for the next twenty years from film-making, political activity, traveling or giving interviews. Panahi's colleague Mohammad Rasoulof was also sentenced to six years in prison.
  • In February 2010 he was denied permission to leave Iran to participate in the panel discussion on 'Iranian Cinema: Present and Future. Expectations inside and outside of Iran' during the World Cinema Fund Day at the 60th Berlinale.