NO BEARS World Cinema

Though banned from filmmaking and from leaving the country since 2010, Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi has employed docufiction techniques to evade further sanctions, winning awards internationally at film festivals that he is unable to attend. In his latest, Panahi – as himself – relocates to a small town along the Turkish border to direct his crew from afar in making a film about a couple attempting to flee the country. As events in the small town begin to mirror those of the film, the filmmaker’s own circumstances and the impact of the production on his supporters threatens danger. Not since THIS IS NOT A FILM, has Panahi so explicitly addressed the ramifications of his sentencing, this time implicating himself, in this collaborative artform.

Just prior to the film’s Venice premiere, a government crackdown saw the arrest of fellow Iranian filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Aleahmad. Panahi barged into the prosecutor’s office to inquire about their well-being and was promptly arrested himself. He now serves his deferred six-year sentence. The film went on to win the Venice Film Festival Special Jury Prize. –Malin Kan