Jafar Panahi

Jafar Panâhi (, ) (born 11 July 1960) is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and editor. He is known internationally for his contributions to Iranian cinema and has received numerous awards at major film festivals, including the Palme d'Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival for '' It Was Just an Accident'', the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival for ''Taxi'' (2015), and the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for '' The Circle'' (2000). These accolades make him the fourth filmmaker — after Henri-Georges Clouzot, Michelangelo Antonioni and Robert Altman — to win the top prizes at the Big Three film festivals.

Panahi began his career making short films and working as an assistant to Abbas Kiarostami. His debut feature, '' The White Balloon'' (1995), won the Caméra d'Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, marking the first major award for an Iranian film at that event. He has since been associated with the Iranian New Wave and often explores themes of social injustice and restrictions, political oppression, and the experiences of marginalized individuals in Iran.

His films have frequently been banned in Iran, and his career has been marked by conflict with Iranian authorities. In 2010, he was arrested and later sentenced to six years in prison and a 20-year ban on filmmaking and travel. Despite these restrictions, he continued to produce films, including '' This Is Not a Film'' (2011), which was smuggled out of Iran for screening at Cannes.

Other notable works include '' The Mirror'' (1997), '' Offside'' (2006), '' Closed Curtain'' (2013), '' 3 Faces'' (2018) and '' No Bears'' (2022).

Early life and education

Jafar Panahi was born in Mianeh, Iran, to an Iranian Azerbaijani family, which he has described as working-class. He grew up with four sisters and two brothers. His father worked as a house painter. His family spoke Azerbaijani at home, but Persian with other Iranians.Stone, Judy. ''Eye on the World: Conversations with International Filmmakers''. Silman-James Press, Los Angeles, 1997, , p. 386. When he was ten years old he used an 8 mm film camera. He also acted in one film and assisted Kanoon's library director in running a program that taught children how to operate a film camera.

Starting at age 12, Panahi worked after school in order to afford to go and see films. His impoverished childhood helped form the humanistic worldview of his films.

At age 20 Panahi was conscripted into the Iranian army and served in the Iran–Iraq War, working as an army cinematographer from 1980 to 1982. In 1981 he was captured by Kurdish rebels and held for 76 days.

From his war experiences he made a documentary that was eventually shown on TV. After completing his military service, Panahi enrolled at the College of Cinema and TV in Tehran, where he studied filmmaking and especially appreciated the works of Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, Luis Buñuel, and Jean-Luc Godard. There he first met and befriended filmmaker Parviz Shahbazi and cinematographer Farzad Jodat, who shot all of Panahi's early work. During college he interned at the Bandar Abbas Center on the Persian Gulf Coast, where he made his first short documentary films. He also began working as an assistant director on his professor's films before graduating in 1988.

Early career

Panahi made several short documentary films for Iranian television through the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting's Channel 2. His first short film, ''The Wounded Heads'' (''Yarali Bashlar''), was a documentary about the illegal mourning tradition of head slashing in the Azerbaijan region of northern Iran. The film documents a mourning ceremony for the third Shi'ite Imam, Imam Hossein, in which people hit their heads with knives until they bled. Panahi had to shoot in secret and the film was banned for several years. In 1988 Panahi filmed ''The Second Look'' (''Negah-e Dovvom''), a behind-the-scenes documentary short on the making of Kambuzia Partovi's film ''Golnar''. It focuses on the puppet maker for Partovi's film and his relationship with his puppets. It was not released until 1993. In 1990 he worked as an assistant director on Partovi's film '' The Fish'' (1991).

In 1992 Panahi made his first narrative short film, ''The Friend'' (''Doust''), an homage to Kiarostami's first short film, '' The Bread and Alley''. That same year Panahi made his second narrative short, ''The Final Exam'' (''Akharin Emtehan''). Both films starred non-professional actors Ali Azizollahi and Mehdi Shahabi and won awards for Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing at Iran's National TV Festival that year. Inspired by a story of a young Luis Buñuel once contacting successful film director Jean Epstein to ask for a job in filmmaking, Panahi left a message on Kiarostami's answering machine saying that he loved his films and asking for a job on his next film. Kiarostami hired Panahi as his assistant director for the film ''Through the Olive Trees''.

1995–2009: Career as a film director

''The White Balloon'' (1995)

In 1995 Panahi made his feature film debut, '' The White Balloon'' (''Badkonak-e sefid''), produced by IRIB- Channel 2, Ferdos Films and the Farabi Cinema Foundation.Dönmez-Colin. p. 226. Initially titled ''Happy New Year'', Panahi developed the original story with Parviz Shahbazi and attempted to get funding from IRIB's Channel 1 with the expectation that it would be a short film, but his proposal was rejected. He then showed his original treatment for the film to Kiarostami during the shooting of ''Through the Olive Trees''. Kiarostami encouraged Panahi to make the idea into a feature and agreed to write the script. During their car rides to set while shooting, Kiarostami would dictate the film's script while Panahi taped the conversation and typed the script. Kiarostami also helped Panahi secure funding from IRIB's Channel 2. While casting the film, Panahi traveled throughout Iran in order to include all of the diverse ethnicities of his country as characters in the film. He found lead actress Aida Mohammadkhani at the first school that he visited and immediately cast her as Razieh, but auditioned 2,600 young boys for the role of Razieh's brother Ali before settling on Mohsen Kalifi.Stone, Judy. ''Eye on the World: Conversations with International Filmmakers''. Silman-James Press, Los Angeles, 1997, , pp. 386–387. He cast non-professionals in most of the supporting roles, including a real fish seller he found in the Rasht market and a college student to portray the young soldier. He also cast professional actress Anna Borkowska as an Armenian woman.

In the film Razieh, a strong-willed little girl in Tehran, wants to buy a lucky goldfish for the upcoming Iranian New Year celebration, but struggles to get and hold on to the 500-toman banknote needed to purchase the fish. Panahi worked closely with Mohammadkhani, gaining her trust and acting out each scene for her to mimic while still adding her own personality to the performance. Panahi was most concerned about Mohammadkhani being able to cry on cue, so he would have her stare at him off camera while he started to cry, causing her to cry. Filming began in early April 1994 in Kashan, Iran and continued until early June. Panahi has stated that during the making of his feature debut he "wanted to prove to myself that I can do the job, that I can finish a feature film successfully and get good acting out of my players." He also stated that "In a world where films are made with millions of dollars, we made a film about a little girl who wants to buy a fish for less than a dollar – this is what we're trying to show." In Iran, films depicting children are the most likely to avoid censorship or political controversy, and ''The White Balloon'' was screened exclusively in theatres that specialized in children's films. Because of this the film had low attendance on its initial run in Iranian theatres, with only 130,000 tickets sold.

It went on to win four prizes in Iran at the Isfahan Film Festival for Children and Young Adults and at the Fajr International Film Festival. For several years after its release, Kanoon's Channel 2 would broadcast the film every year on New Year's Day. Outside of Iran ''The White Balloon'' received excellent reviews and was shown at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Camera d'Or. It also won the Golden Award of the Governor of Tokyo for Best Film and the Bronze Dragon for Best Film of Young Cinema at the 1995 Tokyo International Film Festival, the International Jury Award at the 1995 São Paulo International Film Festival and the Best Film Award at the 1996 Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival. It was Iran's official submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 68th Academy Awards; however, the Iranian government asked the Academy to withdraw the film after Iran's relations with the US began to deteriorate. The Academy refused to withdraw the film, which was not nominated, and Panahi was forbidden by the Iranian government to travel to the Sundance Film Festival or to participate in phone interviews with US reporters to promote the film.

''The Mirror'' (1997)

Panahi's second feature film was '' The Mirror'', produced by Rooz Films.Dönmez-Colin. pp. 224. Initially Panahi was going to direct Kiarostami's script for '' Willow and Wind'', but he decided to pursue his own work instead. Panahi was inspired to make the film when while attending the 1996 Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea he noticed a young girl sitting alone on a park bench staring blankly into space, and realized that he had seen this same thing countless times in Iran and never paid attention to it. He has stated that he "choose a precocious child and placed her in a situation where she is left to her own devices. Everyone she meets on her journey is wearing a mask or playing a role. I wanted to throw these masks away." The film stars Mina Mohammadkhani, the sister of Aida Mohammadkhani. In the film Mohammadkhani could be said to play two characters: the role of a little girl named Baharan and then herself as the film shifts into a documentary mode. Panahi reported casting her after having detected " a feeling of emptiness within her, and a determination to prove herself to the world." It received the Golden Leopard Award at the Locarno Film Festival, the Special Jury Award and Best Director Award at the 1998 Singapore International Film Festival, the Golden Tulip Award at the 1998 Istanbul Film Festival, the FIPRESCI Prize and the Eisenstein Magical Crystal and Cash Award at the 1998 Riga International Film Festival, and Buñuel's Golden Era Award at the Royal Archive Film Festival in Belgium.

''The Circle'' (2000)

In 2000 Panahi made '' The Circle'', produced by Jafar Panahi Film Productions and Mikado-Lumiere&Co. Although Panahi claimed that he was not a political filmmaker, his third feature was a major departure from his first two works about children and is critical of the treatment of women under Iran's Islamist regime. Panahi has stated that "I started my career making children's films, and while doing that I had no problems with censors. As soon as I started making feature films, it all started and I had problems," but that "in my first films, I worked with children and young people, but I began to think of the limitations facing these girls once they grow up. In order to visualize these limitations and to have this constraint better projected visually, I went to a social class, which has more limitations to areas that are more underprivileged, so that this idea could come out ever stronger." He had to wait an entire year to get an official shooting permit.Dönmez-Colin. p. 91.

The film was shot in 35 days over a 53-day period. As usual, Panahi used non-professional actors, with the exceptions of Fatemeh Naghavi and Fereshteh Sadre Orafaiy. He saw the lead actress, Nargess Mamizadeh, in a park one day and immediately offered her the role. The film opens with one long, handheld shot that lasts over three minutes and took 13 attempts to achieve. Panahi adopted a different camera style to depict each of the four main protagonists' lives. For the first, an idealistic woman he used a handheld camera. For the second woman, the camera is mounted on a constantly moving dolly. The third woman's story is told at night in darker outside, and the camera is static with pans and tight close-ups. For the last, least optimistic woman both the camera and the woman are completely immobile and very little sound is used. Panahi submitted the film to the Venice Film Festival without getting a permit from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. At the festival it won the Golden Lion, the FIPRESCI prize, the UNICEF prize, the Ecumenical Special Mention, the Sergio Trazzati Award and Mamizadeh won the Italian Film Journalist's Award for Best Actress.Dönmez-Colin. p. 232. The Ministry of Culture and Guidance issued a permit for the film a few days before its screening at the festival, although they already knew that it had been submitted illegally. The Ministry later banned the film in Iran. Panahi was worried that the Ministry would "confiscate and mutilate" all copies of the film, so he made multiple copies and hid them all over Iran.Zeydabadi-Nejad. p. 151. Irans's Cinema Deputy Mohammad-Hassan Pezeshk said that ''The Circle'' was banned because it had "such a completely dark and humiliating perspective." It was later withdrawn by Iranian authorities from the Fajr International Film Festival for being "offensive to Muslim women".

The film went on to win the FIPRESCI Film of the Year Award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, appeared on Top 10 lists of critics worldwideDabashi. pp. 394. and won the Best Film Award at the Montevideo International Film Festival and the Freedom of Expression Award from the National Board of Review.

''Crimson Gold'' (2003)

Panahi directed '' Crimson Gold'' in 2003, produced by Jafar Panahi Productions. The film depicts an impoverished pizza delivery man's failed attempt to rob a jewelry store and the events that drove him to his crime. The story is based on real events that Panahi first heard about when Kiarostami told him the story while they were stuck in a traffic jam on their way to one of Kiarostami's photographic exhibits. Panahi was extremely moved by the story and Kiarostami agreed to write the script for him to direct. Panahi submitted the film to the Cannes Film Festival without being granted a permit from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. Panahi had applied for the permit but the Ministry demanded several cuts be made to the film. Panahi refused and submitted the film anyway. At the festival it won the Un Certain Regard Jury Award. It later won the Golden Hugo Award for Best Film at the Chicago International Film Festival. Like ''The Circle'', ''Crimson Gold'' was banned in Iran.

''Offside'' (2006)

In 2006 Panahi made '' Offside''. In the film, a group of young Iranian girls disguise themselves as boys to sneak into Azadi Stadium to watch the World Cup qualifying football playoff game between Iran and Bahrain. The film was partially shot during the actual game it depicts. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution women have been banned from attending football matches in Iran on grounds of rowdy and aggressive language, lewd behavior, and seeing men in shorts and short sleeve shirts. At one point Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had wanted to repeal the law but was overruled by the ulema. Panahi has stated "I use the football game as a metaphor to show the discrimination against women on a larger scale. All my movies have that topic at their center. This is what I am trying to change in Iranian society." The film was inspired by an incident several years earlier when Panahi's daughter was refused entry to a football stadium but ended up sneaking into the stadium anyway.

Knowing that the film would be controversial, Panahi and his crew submitted a fake script about some young men who go to a football match to Iranian authorities in order to get permission to make the film. However, before they began shooting the Ministry of Guidance, which issues licenses for films to be shown publicly, told Panahi in advance that because of his past films they would not issue ''Offside'' a license until he re-edited his previous films. Not wanting to miss the World Cup tournament, Panahi ignored the Ministry and began shooting the film. As usual, Panahi cast non-professional actors for the film, and the group of young girls in the lead roles were mostly university students that Panahi found through friends who all were passionate fans of football. The film was shot in 39 days and in order to move unnoticed through large crowds Panahi used digital video for the first time so as to have a smaller, more inconspicuous camera. Panahi also officially listed his Assistant Director as the Director of the film so as not to attract the attention of the Ministry of Guidance or the Disciplinary Forces of Tehran, but towards the end of the film's shooting a newspaper article about the making of the film listed Panahi as the director and both organizations attempted to shut the film down and confiscate the footage. Only a sequence that takes place on a bus remained to be filmed so Panahi was able to continue filming without being caught.''Offside'' DVD Special Features, Jafar Panahi interview, Sony Pictures Classics, 2007.

The film premiered in competition at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival, where Panahi was awarded with the Silver Bear Jury Grand Prix. Like ''The Circle'' and ''Crimson Gold'' before it, ''Offside'' was banned from being shown in Iran. Panahi had already set up distribution for the film all over Iran and the film was predicted to break all box office records. Two days after being banned and twenty days before the World Cup championship game, unlicensed DVD copies of the film became available all over Iran. Panahi has stated that of his films ''Offside'' is "probably the one that people have seen the most" in Iran. After the film's release a feminist protest group in Iran called the White Scarf Girls began showing up at football matches carrying banners that read: "We don't want to be Offside". Sony Pictures Classics, the film's U.S. distributor, wrote a letter to the Ministry of Guidance in Iran requesting that the film be shown for at least one week in its home country so that they could launch a campaign to nominate the film for Best Foreign Language Film, but the Ministry refused.

Other work

In 1997 Panahi made the documentary short film ''Ardekoul''. In 2007 he contributed the short film ''Untying the Knot'' to the omnibus film ''Persian Carpet''. The film contains one single long take and is inspired by his childhood. In 2010 he made the short film ''The Accordion'', which was commissioned for the ''Then and Now Beyond Borders and Differences'' series of short film by Art for The World. It premiered at the 2010 Venice Film Festival. Panahi has referred to the situation in Iran as "the dark ages for filmmaking in Iran" and that he was "presenting the future with something to see, a document of what life was like at that time."

Panahi directed a segment of the anthology film '' The Year of the Everlasting Storm'' which will have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in July 2021. In 2024, he collaborated to '' The Witness'', serving as screenwriter, editor and artistic consultant.

Legal problems and controversies

Earlier legal problems

On 15 April 2001, Panahi stopped over at JFK International Airport in New York City en route from Hong Kong to Buenos Aires, where he was to participate in a film festival. He was immediately detained by police officers who wanted to fingerprint and photograph him; Panahi refused both requests on the grounds that he was not a criminal. He was threatened with jail and refused an interpreter or a phone call. After being handcuffed and detained at the airport until the next morning, he was finally allowed to make a phone call to his friend Professor Jamsheed Akrami. He was finally photographed and sent back to Hong Kong.

In 2003, Panahi was arrested and interrogated for four hours by the Information Ministry in Iran, then released after being encouraged to leave Iran.

On 30 July 2009, Mojtaba Saminejad, an Iranian blogger and human rights activist writing from Iran, reported that Panahi had been arrested at the cemetery in Tehran where mourners had gathered near the grave of Neda Agha-Soltan.Updates on New Post-Election Protests in Iran, New York Times
30 July 2009 He was able to contact friends in the film industry, both in Iran and internationally, and filmmakers and the news media pressured the Iranian government to release him. He was detained for eight hours. The Iranian government claimed he had been arrested by mistake.

In September 2009, Panahi travelled to Montreal to act as the Head of the Jury at the 2009 Montreal World Film Festival

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