Jafar Panahi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
جعفر پناهی
Jafar Panahi

Jafar Panahi, Cines del Sur 2007
Born 11 July 1960 (1960-07-11) (age 49)
Mianeh, Iran
Occupation Film director

Jafar Panahi (Persian: جعفر پناهی , born July 11, 1960 in Mianeh, Iran) is an Iranian filmmaker and is one of the most influential filmmakers in the Iranian New Wave movement. He has gained recognition from film theorists and critics worldwide and received numerous awards including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.[1]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Jafar Panahi was ten years old when he wrote his first book, which subsequently won the first prize in a literary competition.[2] At the same age, he became familiar with film making. He shot films on 8mm film, acting in one and assisting in the making of another. Later, he took up photography. During his military service, Panahi served in the Iran–Iraq War (1980-90) and made a documentary about the war during this period.

After studying film directing at the College of Cinema and Television in Tehran,[3] Panahi made several films for Iranian television and was the assistant director of Abbas Kiarostami's film Through the Olive Trees (1994). Since that time, he has directed several films and won numerous awards in international film festivals.

Panahi's first feature film came in 1995, entitled White Balloon. This film won a Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. His second feature film, The Mirror, received the Golden Leopard Award at the Locarno Film Festival.

His most notable offering to date has been The Circle (2000), which criticized the treatment of women under Iran's Islamist regime. Jafar Panahi won the Golden Lion, the top prize at the Venice Film Festival for The Circle, which was named FIPRESCI Film of the Year at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, and appeared on Top 10 lists of critics worldwide.[4]. Panahi also directed Crimson Gold in 2003, which brought him the Un Certain Regard Jury Award at the Cannes Film Festival. During that time Panahi was detained in the JFK airport, New York, while taking a connection from Hong Kong to Montevideo, after refusing to be photographed and fingerprinted by the immigration police. After being chained and waiting for several hours, he was finally sent back to Hong Kong.[5]

Panahi winning the Berlin Silver Bear in 2006 for his Offside

Panahi's Offside (the story of girls who disguise themselves as boys to be able to watch a football match) was selected for competition in the 2006 Berlin Film Festival, where he was awarded with the Silver Bear (Jury Grand Prix).

On 30 July 2009, Mojtaba Saminejad, an Iranian blogger and human rights activist writing from inside Iran, reported that Panahi was arrested at the cemetery in Tehran where mourners had gathered near the grave of Neda Agha-Soltan.[6] He was later released, but his passport was revoked and he was banned from leaving the country. In February 2010 his request to travel to the 60th Berlin Film Festival to participate in the panel discussion on "Iranian Cinema: Present and Future. Expectations inside and outside of Iran" was denied.[7]

On 1 March 2010, Panahi was arrested again. He was taken from his home along with his wife Tahereh Saidi, daughter Solmaz Panahi and 15 of his friends by plainclothes officers and taken to the Evin Prison.[8] Most were released 48 hours later, Mohammad Rasoulof and Mehdi Pourmoussa on 17 March 2010, but Panahi remains in ward 209 inside Evin Prison.[9] Panahi's arrest was confirmed by the government, but charges were not specified.[10] Filmmakers Ken Loach, Dardenne brothers, Jon Jost, Walter Salles, Olivier Assayas, Tony Gatlif, Abbas Kiarostami,[11] Kiomars Pourahmad, Bahram Bayzai, Asghar Farhadi, Nasser Taghvai, Kamran Shirdel and Tahmineh Milani, actors Brian Cox and Mehdi Hashemi, actresses Fatemeh Motamed-Aria and Golshifteh Farahani,[12] Federation of European Film Directors, European Film Academy,[13] Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema,[14] Berlin Film Festival,[15] Karlovy Vary International Film Festival,[16] International Film Festival Rotterdam,[17] Febiofest, Toronto Film Critics Association[18] and Turkish Cinema Council have called for his release. France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs[19] and minister of culture and communications Frédéric Mitterrand, German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle,[20] Canadian government, Finnish Green MP Rosa Meriläinen and Human Rights Watch[21] have condemned the arrest. On 8 March 2010, a group of well-known Iranian producers, directors and actors visited Panahi's family to show their support and call for his immediate release. After more than a week in captivity, Panahi was finally allowed to call his family. On 18 March 2010 he has been allowed to have visitors, including his family and lawyer.

[edit] Style

Panahi's style is often described as an Iranian form of neorealism.[citation needed] Jake Wilson describes his films as connected by a "tension between documentary immediacy and a set of strictly defined formal parameters" in addition to "overtly expressed anger at the restrictions that Iranian society imposes".[22] His film Offside is so ensconced in the reality that it was actually filmed in part during the event it dramatizes – the Iran-Bahrain qualifying match for the 2006 World Cup.[23]

Where Panahi differs from his fellow realist filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, is in the explicitness of his social critique. Stephen Teo writes that

"Panahi's films redefine the humanitarian themes of contemporary Iranian cinema, firstly, by treating the problems of women in modern Iran, and secondly, by depicting human characters as "non-specific persons" - more like figures who nevertheless remain full-blooded characters, holding on to the viewer's attention and gripping the senses. Like the best Iranian directors who have won acclaim on the world stage, Panahi evokes humanitarianism in an unsentimental, realistic fashion, without necessarily overriding political and social messages. In essence, this has come to define the particular aesthetic of Iranian cinema. So powerful is this sensibility that we seem to have no other mode of looking at Iranian cinema other than to equate it with a universal concept of humanitarianism."[6]

Panahi says that his style can be described as "humanitarian events interpreted in a poetic and artistic way". He says "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 (in The White Balloon) - this is what we're trying to show."[6]

In an interview with Anthony Kaufman, Panahi said: "I was very conscious of not trying to play with people's emotions; we were not trying to create tear-jerking scenes. So it engages people's intellectual side. But this is with assistance from the emotional aspect and a combination of the two."[6]

[edit] Filmography

"Crimson Gold" (2003)

[edit] Awards and honors

Jafar Panahi has won numerous awards up to now. Here are the most important:

[edit] Film festival work

Panahi was a jury member at numerous film festivals:

  • President of the jury of Montreal World Film Festival (2009)
  • President of the jury of Rotterdam Film Festival (2008)
  • Chair of the Kerala International Film Festival Jury (2007)
  • International Eurasia Film Festival (2007)
  • Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (2001)

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ 'Awards for Jafar Panahi', at the IMDb
  2. ^ "The Case of Jafar Panahi". http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/15/panahi_interview.html. 
  3. ^ "Interview at Senses of Cinema by Stephen Teo". http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/15/panahi_interview.html. 
  4. ^ Profile - Panahi, Jafar: Director Career
  5. ^ Cathcart, Michael (07/05/2001). "Iranian Filmaker Jahar Panafi detained at JFK airport New York". ABC.net. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/atoday/stories/s291402.htm. Retrieved 4 March 2010. 
  6. ^ a b c d Updates on New Post-Election Protests in Iran, New York Times 30 July, 2009
  7. ^ "Iranian Director Jafar Panahi Denied Permission to Leave Iran". 16 February 2010. http://www.berlinale.de/en/presse/pressemitteilungen/alle/Alle-Detail_5896.html. 
  8. ^ Article on BBC Persian
  9. ^ "Jafar Panahi in Evin ward 209". 6 March 2010. http://www.rhairan.org/en/?p=1486. 
  10. ^ "Iran Arrests Filmmaker Who Backed Opposition". New York Times. 2 March 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/world/middleeast/03iran.html. 
  11. ^ "Iranian Filmmaker Speaks Out on Prisoners". 9 March 2010. http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/iranian-filmmaker-speaks-out-on-prisoners/. 
  12. ^ "Variety - Fate of Iranian director still unknown". 19 March 2010. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118016696.html?categoryid=13&cs=1. 
  13. ^ "Jafar Panahi Arrest: European Film Academy protests". 5 March 2010. http://efareviews.cineuropa.org/2010/03/jafar-panahi-arrest-european-film.html. 
  14. ^ "NETPAC calls for the release of Jafar Panahi". 3 March 2010. http://dearcinema.com/news/netpac-calls-release-jafar-panahi. 
  15. ^ "Berlinale Statement on Jafar Panahi’s arrest". 11 March 2010. http://www.berlinale.de/en/presse/pressemitteilungen/alle/Alle-Detail_5984.html. 
  16. ^ "Karlovy Vary IFF joins protesting the arrest of this renowned artist". http://www.kviff.com/en/news/1527-iranian-film-director-jafar-panahi-arrested/. 
  17. ^ "IFFR's statement against arrest of Jafar Panahi". http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/professionals/programme/news/iranian-filmmaker-jafar-panahi-arrested/. 
  18. ^ "TFCA Calls for Release of Jafar Panahi". 16 March 2010. http://torontofilmcritics.com/blog/2010/03/16/tfca-calls-for-release-of-jafar-panahi-and-mahmoud-rasoulof/. 
  19. ^ Borzou Daragahi (3 March 2010). "Acclaimed Iranian filmmaker arrested in late-night raid". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-iran-filmmaker3-2010mar03,0,1962791.story. Retrieved 2010-03-03. 
  20. ^ "Federal Minister Westerwelle calls for the release of Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi". 3 March 2010. http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/diplo/en/Infoservice/Presse/Meldungen/2010/100303-Panahi.html. 
  21. ^ "Iran: Indict or Free Filmmakers". 12 March 2010. http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/03/11/iran-indict-or-free-filmmakers. 
  22. ^ "A mirror under the veil - and inside the stadium", The Age, September 26, 2006
  23. ^ notcoming.com | 2006 in Review - by Leo Goldsmith
  24. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Crimson Gold". festival-cannes.com. http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/4083739/year/2003.html. Retrieved 2009-11-08. 

[edit] Readings

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jafar_Panahi"