The Iranian actress Behnaz Jafari receives a video message from a young woman who’s taped her own suicide after reaching the conclusion that she likely won’t fulfill her dream of becoming an actress. The suicide girl lives in a small village, far from Tehran, and any activity that doesn’t involve milking cows or knitting is regarded with a lot of suspicion by the locals, thus bringing dishonor. ... more >
ARCHIVES
CANNES FESTIVAL, “Three faces”
One of Panahi's most accomplished films to date
Jafar Panahi and Behnaz Jafari
Directed by Jafar Panahi
PANAHI MAKES HIS COMEBACK | CANNES FESTIVAL selection announced
It'll be hard to deny it: the Cannes Festival doth Iranian cinema love. Asghar Farhadi's "Everybody knows," which stars Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, will open this 71st edition, in a long tradition of showing deference to Iranian cinema. Jafar Panahi, under house arrest in Tehran by order of Iran's judicial courts (he won the top prize at Berlinale for his "Tehran Taxi" in 2015), has a horse ... more >
JAFAR PANAHI GETS GOLDEN BEAR AT BERLINALE
The film world a political injustice loveth (but it also loveth good cinema). And in a perfect storm of urgent, inspired filmmaking and jurisdictional accuracy the Golden Bear, the top award at the Berlinale, went to Jafar Panahi for his film "Taxi," a day after the FIPRESCI prize was given to him. Many of the other awards given out last night went to the underdogs, directors making cinema on a ... more >
BERLINALE | FACT CHECK
Who's who at Berlin this year? Read on
Gallic cinema's three most visible actresses, Juliette Binoche, Catherine Deneuve and Isabelle Huppert, will be present at the Berlin Film Festival (a.k.a. "Berlinale") next month, their latest films having been selected for the festival as announced by the festival’s organizers just before the weekend. Catherine Deneuve will be presenting “Elle S’en Va” (“She’s leaving,” in French) by ... more >
THIS IS NOT A FILM to open in New York
A filmmaker under house arrest reflects
Renowned Iranian director Jafar Panahi (The Circle, and one of my all-time favorite, Offside) received a six-year prison sentence and a twenty-year ban from making movies due to his open support of the opposition party in Iran's 2009 elections. In this surprising documentary, which was secretly shot on an iPhone and a digital camera by Panahi's close friend Mojtaba Mirtahmasb and smuggled into ... more >
Jafar Panahi sentenced
Iran's foremost filmmaker will get jail
One filmmaker is the thorn in an authoritarian state's side--can you guess which one? As everyone knows by now Jafar Panahi was handed down a harsh sentence by the Iranian government. This kind of puts the profession of filmmaker back into perspective, doesn't it? According to Farideh Gheirat, this lawyer, the "Offside" director got six years in jail and will be forbidden to make movies, write ... more >