Directed by Jafar Panahi — Screenplay by Jafar Panahi.
For some, making art with something to say is a vocation that means risking your life if you decide to pursue it. Such is the case for renowned Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. Panahi, a veteran of the art form, has had a career that has seen him come into direct conflict with the Iranian government, which has, over the years, censored, detained, imprisoned, and punished him for making films that criticize the people in charge of the country, the politics of said government, and the effects of the system in place on Iranians. A former political prisoner who has been banned from making films in his home country, Panahi has frequently been supported by organizations, politicians, and filmmakers from all over the world, and he consistently tries to find loopholes to get around the extreme difficulty of being a filmmaker in a country that has no interest in seeing him make films. To make his Palme d’Or-winning and Oscar-nominated film It Was Just An Accident, he had to film in secret without a permit and be inventive with where and when to film so as not to be approached, arrested, or worse by authorities. As the accolades won by him attest, Panahi succeeded in making something worthwhile. I finally saw it earlier today, and I thought it was a fantastic film (and important text) made even more impressive by the difficulties he and his crew had to overcome to make it.
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