For the first time in more than two decades, the acclaimed Iranian director Jafar Panahi spoke with the press at the Cannes Film Festival, not remotely of the house arrest in Tehran but as a free man. At the press conference for your competition It was just an accidentPanahi reflected on his long -awaited return to Croisette and the weight of representing those who remain silenced in Iran.
Cannes of this year marks the first appearance of Panahi at the festival since 2003, when Crimson gold He won the prize a certain respect.
Panahi has been able to travel, later, in February 2023, he was released from prison, after a hunger strike. A 2010 conviction was revoked, which forbade him to travel as a film. Suddenly, Panahi could work and move as he wanted.
«It took me some time to stand again and return to work,» Panahi said. «And this movie (It was just an accident) is the result. «
It was just an accident It is one of his politically more direct works to date. Secret filmed in Iran and with female characters revealed in challenge to the country’s Hijab Law, the film follows a group of former state prisoners who debate if they avenged the man who tortured them.
«In a way, it’s not me who made this film. It is the Islamic Republic that made this film, because they put me in prison,» Panahi told THR In a long -standing interview before the movie premiere. «Maybe once they see this movie, they will realize that they should not put artists in prison … Maybe they want to prevent us from being so subversive, they should stop putting us in jail.»
At the press conference, Panahi said that his films are «always inspired by the environment in which I am», and before prison, his surroundings was the Iranian society, but that «once they have sent you to prison, you are inevitably influenced and impacted by what you observe and what you see.»
One of the stars of the movie, Mariam Afshari, said the film is «a way to show us for what we are happening, our fight.»
The naturalist style of the film and the calm tension remembers the previous work of Panahi, including The circle and Offside -And contrast with the most self -reflexive and restricted projects he made while officially prohibited from working, such as This is not a movie and Taxi. But although it avoids open autobiography, its issues of imprisonment, trauma and resistance are deeply resonated with the personal history of the director.
Panahi remembered having been arrested in abysmal conditions in prison, in a cell of 5 by 8 feet, «where I barely have space to go to bed or walk. To go to the bathroom I had to play a bell,» he said. «They allowed me to go to the bathroom 2-3 times a day. To get out of my cell, I had to have my eyes with blindfolds. Only in the bathroom you could remove the bandage of the eyes.»
During his imprisonment, Panahi said, he was constantly questioned, often for 8 hours a day. «Once, it was time to pray and my interrogator went out to pray and then returned to the interrogation.»
But Panahi said many, many others suffered much more. He pointed out that his writer’s partner was sent back to prison. «It is the Iranian person who has spent the last 40 years in captivity,» he said.
Despite fighting decades of censorship, abuse and an official prohibition, Panahi said he never thought about giving up.
«During my 20 -year prohibition, even my closest friends had hoped that I would once again make movies,» Panahi said. «But I looked for solutions, I told myself that I didn’t know how to do anything else … I can’t change a bulb, I can’t work a screwdriver. I don’t know how to do anything except making movies.»
As films made during its official prohibition, It was just an accident It was made in secret, without the approval of the Iranian regime.
The premiere of the film in Cannes on Tuesday drew an enthusiastic reception and a foot ovation of 8 minutes, with few dry eyes at home. Panahi delivered a moving speech, paying tribute to the many directors, actors and activists still imprisoned or prohibited to work as a result of Liberté’s female protests.
Whatever the response of the Iranian regime to his new film, Panahi said he intends to keep the fight.
«I behave like other Iranians, I am not a special case in any matter. Iranian women are prohibited from leaving without a handkerchief in the head, but they still do,» he said, «I will not do anything more heroic. As soon as my work ends here, I will return to Iran, the next day. And I will ask my next movie.»
(Tagstotranslate) Cannes (T) Cannes 2025 (T) Cannes Film Festival (T) International (T) Iran (T) Jafar Panahi
