Saturday, 26 April 2025
Saturday, 26 April 2025
In 2010, Panahi was banned from leaving Iran and from film-making for 20 years. 'This Is Not a Film' was the first film he made in 2011 while in lock-down following the state imposed ban. The film made in the director's apartment is a depiction of a day in his life spent in isolation. The film was smuggled out of the country in a USB stick hidden in a cake.
Pictures: Twitter
'Offside' (2006) is a story about a group of young female soccer fans trying to enter the stadium where the World Cup qualifying match between Bahrain and Iran was taking place on June 8, 2005. In Iran, women are prohibited from attending sports events. In the film, the girls all dresses up as men to enter the match. Jafar Panahi has been a true critic of the Iranian government due to its oppression against Iranian women.
Jafar Panahi made 'Closed Curtain' in 2013 when he was placed under house arrest. The plot is of a screenwriter who lives a secluded, isolated life at his seaside home and whose life gets disturbed by a woman fleeing the police. Panahi secretly filmed the movie with a small crew at his own seaside home.
Closed Curtain (2013)
Jafar Panahi became a cab driver with a dashboard cam in his 2015 film, 'Taxi'. At the first glance, the audience might expect only random encounters as Panahi drives his taxi through the streets of Tehran. But it will soon become clear to the audience, the passengers or the characters are playing the scripted roles. Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights activist was one of the passengers, who has dedicated her life in representing activists.
