Director Panah Panahi is in Paris to promote his father Jafar Panahi’s latest movie. Jafar Panahi is a award winning director who is arrested in his country since July 2022. Funny and serious at the same time, “No Bear” is released at a time when the Islamic Republic of Iran where the uprising continues despite the regime increasing cracked down.
Below the translated interview from French to English by RFI with Panah Panahi:
RFI :”No Bear” received the special jury prize at the Mostra of Venice film festival this year. The film’s subject is about exile and lack of freedom. Your father, Jafar Panahi, finished his film shortly before his imprisonment in July. If you were to summarize the film in one sentence what would you say?
Panah Panahi: It’s an autobiographical film – like all Jafar Panahi’s movies – which speaks about the restrictions imposed on the people, filmmakers as well as actors and artists in general.
RFI: Jafar Panahi, who is banned from making films by the regime in Tehran, appears as himself in the movie as a film director who wants to film a love story taking place in a village in the north-west of Iran, but who is confronted to many obstacles. Is the film as in most of Jafar Panahi’s work a form of struggle for freedom?
Panah Panahi : Precisely, it’s about the obsession of every artist living in a closed society. When the regime orders these restrictions, the artist absolutely needs to speak up so that others can hear him. People often ask Jafar Panahi on why he always speaks about restrictions and limitations instead of more positive things occurring in society. Jafar Panahi responds that the role of the artist is not to praise what is positive, or what is free in society. The role of the artist is to raise hope in society for a better future by showing the limitations and surpass them.
RFI: Exile is a recurrent theme in iranian contemporary cinema. Despite many artists who decided to flee the regime, Jafar Panahi and other colleagues choose to stay in the country and resist despite the oppression, censorship and freedom restrictions.
Panah Panahi : Given that with this regime, we cannot do anything because it doesn’t give the slightest hope, everyone is faced with this existential choice: Should they stay or should they go ?
Jafar Panahi has chosen to stay and record the reality of the country. It is for this reason that “No Bear” is autobiographical. Indeed exile is a recurrent theme in society and it has even become an obsession for most filmmakers in Iran. The leadership of the regime even suggested that Panahi could leave the country but he refused to leave.
RFI: Your father, Jafar Panahi, 62 years old, is a major filmmaker of what is considered the Iranian New Wave cinema. He was arrested and imprisoned several times last july for protesting against the arrest of two fellow colleagues: Mohammad Rasoulof et Mostafa Aleahmad. Do you see him regularly? How is he ?
Panah Panahi : Before leaving Iran, three weeks ago, I could see him once in a week. I would speak to him every day by phone. However, since he has no access to the internet, he is very much worried about what is going on in the country. That is why we try to inform him, by phone, on the situation.?
RFI: What are the conditions of your father’s detention?
Panah Panahi: Paradoxically all detainees in Tehran’s Evin prison are intellectuals, poets, green activists or filmmakers. Jafar Panahi is surrounded by cultured people. However we shouldn’t forget that he has no contact outside the prison walls. Ironically being detained in Evin today is like being in a well known university surrounded by cultured people. [Smile.]
RFI: in 2010, Jafar Panahi was condemned to six years in prison for “propaganda against the iranian regime” which was commuted into home arrest. This is what allowed him to make films clandestinely like This is not a film in 2011, Taxi Tehran (German film festival Golden Lion best film award) in 2015. His new film No Bear,
which you just presented in Paris was also filmed in secret. Tell us more about the conditions in which the film was made.
Panah Panahi : The authorities forbid him to make films for twenty years, but Jafar Panahi could not accept such a sentence. No more did he accept the legality of the sentence. He said he will continue his work as a filmmaker.
RFI: How did he bypass the restriction for his film No Bear as well as his previous films? What subterfuges did he use?
Panah Panahi : Since his films are not screened in Iran – and that he knows it never will - he did not restrict himself. He did what he had to do or say.
Since everybody avoided to work with him added to the fact that he couldn’t film in the streets or outdoors, he found a solution: Make films behind closed doors and intimate sets. As a result the scenes are limited, with rudimentary means, because he could not shoot with a large crowd in a public place.
RFI: You worked with your father during the filming of several of his feature films in particular “Three Faces”(Best Scenario award at the Cannes Film Festival) in 2018. What has changed this time with “No Bear”?
Panah Panahi : Since there were a lot of pressures on Jafar Panahi and restrictions imposed by the regime in Tehran, we can see that his outlook is not a hopeful one. Nevertheless he is not in despair in regard to the iranian society. His despair is more towards the regime rather than society. However he is always hopeful on the future of Iranian society and of his country.
RFI: Iranian authorities forbid your father to make films, and forbidden to speak to foreign medias or to travel abroad. Yet he was able to screen his films abroad. Is this due to a form of tolerance by the regime? Or is it a game they play ?
Panah Panahi : The regime doesn’t know what to do with artists like Jafar Panahi. It forbids the films to leave the country. But thanks to the internet, the films can travel out of Iran via downloads.
RFI: « No Bear » wasn’t supposed to be screened in France before 4th of January 2023. But the distributor. ARP Selection, decided to screen it earlier on 23rd of November because of the news regarding the Iran uprisings which continue eversince the death of Mahsa Amini on the 16th of September and despite a bloody crackdown. What is your view, Panah Panahi, on the unprecedent demonstrations since those which took place in 2019 in response the raise of oil prices?
Panah Panahi : I am very hopeful on the events taking place in Iran. If you had asked me this question two months ago I wouldn’t say the same thing. Like most people I was pessimistic. Two months ago, Iranian society was discouraged but wouldn’t show it publically. All this resulted to the explosion of anger which led us to see the reality of the situation in Iran. All this anger transformed into love and unity in an extraordinary way. We have nothing to lose, we aren’t afraid anymore. Our feelings and values so often suppressed by the regime is now resurging.
RFI: Today the people are clearly saying they aspire to freedom.
Panah Panahi : Absolutely. We have reached a no turning point!
RFI: In many iranian cities, we can hear slogans against the regime with images showing women taking off and burning their veils during the demonstrations. The demonstrations continue despite the arrests of people who risk execution. How long will these demonstrations last?
Panah Panahi : Even if the regime manages to suppress the uprising, there will be others in the future. If we look at the 43 years, we can see that the time span between uprisings are shortened.
RFI: So you believe in regime change in Iran ?
Panah Panahi : Yes, I believe in it a 100%. I can’t predict when. In a year, we will certainly witness some important events. When a society gets to a dead end of this magnitude, it becomes impossible to reconcile the society with the regime.
Link to Original article on RFI here
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