On Tuesday, Jafar Panahi, the award-winning Iranian filmmaker, was sentenced to a six-year prison term by the Iranian courts. He was arrested last week after inquiring about another director, Mohammad Rasoulof, who was arrested earlier in July amid an escalating government crackdown.
Over the past three decades, Panahi, now 62, has made playful, intelligent and politically daring films that ingeniously blend the everyday realism of Iran with devious meta-cinematic perspectives. His humanist cinema has secured a place in the pantheon alongside Iranian great Abbas Kiarostami while avoiding the impression that he is just experimenting with cinema.
Panahi’s creative fervor did not fade despite his official film and travel ban in 2010, when he was arrested for supporting protests, imprisoned despite international outrage, and then sentenced to the is now applied.
In the face of repression, Panahi continued to find new ways to sneak around the world. Here are five highlights of his work, all available to stream or rent.
Panahi’s directing career begins with two different feature films about the misadventures of a child on the streets of Tehran. First came the charms of his 1995 debut, “The White Balloon” (which also airs on the Criterion Channel). But then Panahi hatched an unpredictable twist in “The Mirror”: this time, the little girl at the center of the film pokes fun at the director. It starts innocently enough when Mina (Mina Mohammad-Khani) comes out of school and waits, but her mother is nowhere to be found. She hops on a bus but can’t find her way home, and so we watch the one-act dramas of the people around her through her eyes. At some point, Mina announces that she’s had enough of acting and leaves. This seeming break from fiction opens a new chapter, as Panahi (directing everything we’re watching now) strives to follow his AWOL star. It’s a wonderful introduction to its ability to tell stories even when the ground shifts beneath our feet.
2004
‘Crimson Gold’
Stream it on Mubi or Ovid; rent it or buy it on Amazon.
The first seconds immerse us in the middle of an armed robbery in a dark jewelry store. The shooter, Hussein, overpowers the store owner, but he delivers pizza for a living and the robbery was a last resort. Using a screenplay written by Kiarostami, Panahi portrays a cross section of Iranian society from the hapless man’s pizza runs around town, which bring him face to face with the country’s maddening inequalities. Hossein is played by another of Panahi’s indelible non-professional actors, Hussein Emadeddin, who brings crushing fatigue to a character identified as a war veteran (another controversial subject in Iran). Panahi’s previous film, “The Circle,” won him top prize at the Venice Film Festival in 2000, and the accolades, he said, encouraged him to make this brooding, gripping portrait, which was banned in Iran.
A frequent joy in Panahi’s films is his hypothetical approach to the sometimes absurd clash between modern life and conservative rulers in Iran under religious rule. Here, a group of young women just want to watch a World Cup qualifier at a stadium in Tehran, but post-revolution law dictates that only men are allowed to attend football matches. Disguises and shenanigans ensue (inspired by Panahi’s own daughter, who once slipped into a game and caught him in his seat). But the women are being held just outside the entrance by soldiers, who would also rather be elsewhere. The documentary-style comedy finds humor in a ridiculous and maddening situation, with a cast made up in part of college students. But it reflects Panahi’s obvious passion for exposing what women endure in Iran, and there is barbed symbolism at the sight of Iran’s younger generation being relegated to the margins of life.
2012
“This is not a movie”
Stream it on Kanopy; rent it or buy it on Kino Now.
Pure magic. Under house arrest, Panahi conjures up a captivating, witty and original essay on artistic creation and the limits of control. He thinks out loud, he eats, he greets the occasional visitor or talks to a lawyer, and he tapes down movie ideas on the cozy-looking apartment floor. (His daughter’s insanely massive iguana makes surreal cameos.) He does all of this while technically banned from making films – hence the title, and thus the need to smuggle the film out of Iran. The appearance of puttering and improvisation belies the depth of the film’s insight and the defiant resilience of its director, whom you could just rewatch a movie to see how it’s made. (Panahi fans and iguana cameos can watch a twist on the pandemic quarantine by tracking down Panahi’s entry in the omnibus film “Year of the Eternal Storm” on Hulu.)
2019
‘3 faces’
Stream it on Kanopy; rent it or buy it on Amazon and Google Play.
Panahi’s latest feature – and one of his funniest – heads to the countryside, away from his usual Tehran settings. It’s a seductive mix of an urgent premise – Panahi and a famous actress (Behnaz Jafari) track down a young woman from a disturbing cellphone video – and the chance of a road movie. The couple visit the hometown of the young woman in the video (whose family has banned her from acting) and meet eccentric locals, including an older, well-known actress living in exile. Shot in the grandparents’ village of Panahi near the Turkish border, the fluid film depicts a colorful contrast between some hidden salt-of-the-earth inhabitants (who disapprove of artists) and the director and actress trying to give it a meaning. everything. Like his best work, Panahi gives us the impression of never taking the same road twice.
