AFP

Dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi told AFP on Saturday that he was “not at all” scared to return to Iran after winning the top film prize at the Cannes film festival.

Asked if he was worried after scooping the prestigious Palme d’Or for “It Was Just an Accident,” he replied: “Not at all. Tomorrow we are leaving.”

He said that the prize was “not something for me.”

“It’s something for all Iranian filmmakers who cannot work right now but we hope that all Iranian filmmakers will be able to work,” he told AFP.

Panahi has been jailed twice before and was banned from making films for 20 years in 2010.

Iran’s state IRNA news agency reported on and hailed Panahi’s award with a picture of him.

“The world’s largest film festival made history for Iranian cinema,” it reported, recalling the first win for an Iranian at the festival in 1997 by Abbas Kiarostami.

Like his previous films, Panahi shot “It Was Just an Accident” in secret and he revealed earlier this week that his cast and team had been put under “pressure.”

Several members were called in for questioning by Iranian authorities including actress Hadis Pakbaten, he told a news conference.

“Once the film had been announced as being selected (for Cannes), we were put under pressure, we were threatened, we were questioned,” she told the media.

“At the beginning it was scary. I’m young and I was worried for my family.”