2023-04-26 21:27:48
Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi, whose films have won awards at numerous festivals, has left his country for the first time in nearly fourteen years, his lawyer announced on Wednesday. He went to France.
The 62-year-old filmmaker was released on bail in early February following nearly seven months in detention in Tehran. He had been banned from leaving the territory since 2010, when he was sentenced to six years in prison for “propaganda once morest the system”. “After serving his sentence, Jafar Panahi was authorized to leave the country and obtained his passport,” Me Saleh Nikbakht told AFP. He specified that the director had traveled to France to visit his daughter who lives there, without specifying the duration of the stay.
In Tehran: After seven months in prison, Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been released on bail
An award-winning filmmaker at Locarno, Venice, Berlin and Cannes
On Tuesday evening, the filmmaker’s wife posted a photo of herself and Jafar Panahi at an airport on her Instagram page, displaying her joy at getting out of the country. Arrested on July 11, 2022 in Tehran, Jafar Panahi was released in February, two days following going on a hunger strike to protest once morest his conditions of detention. “As far as I know, there are no more court files once morest him,” his lawyer said.
Jafar Panahi received the Golden Leopard in 1997 at the Locarno festival for The mirror. He then won a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2000 for his film The circlethen the Golden Bear in Berlin for Taxi Tehran in 2015 before the prize for the best screenplay for Three Faces at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
His latest film, “No Bear”, which, like most of his recent works, puts him directly on stage, was screened in 2022 at the Venice Film Festival when he was already imprisoned. He won the special jury prize.
Read also: “No bear”, but an Iranian filmmaker prevented from working
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