The absence of the famous Iranian director Jaafar Panahi was a prominent event at the 79th Venice Film Festival, where international filmmakers expressed their protest once morest Panahi’s imprisonment only because he exercises his freedom of expression.
On Friday, Panahi’s film “New Bears” (No Burdens), which is participating in the festival, was screened carefully by its director, Alberto Barbara, in support of “filmmakers at risk”.
During the show, a vacant chair bearing the name of Panahi was placed in a symbolic gesture of solidarity with the arrested director in his country.
Panahi was arrested in Tehran last July and is serving a six-year prison sentence following being found guilty of “propaganda once morest the Iranian regime”.
Panahi began his career as an assistant to Abbas Kiarostami, and won the Golden Lion Award in Venice in 2000 for the movie “The Circle”, and the Screenplay Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018 for the movie “Three Faces”, three years following he won the Golden Bear Award in Berlin for his movie ” Tehran Taxi.
Banahi is one of three filmmakers arrested in Tehran in less than a week amid a campaign of arrests targeting dissidents.
Panahi sent a message from his prison, which was read by the festival director, and the message stated, “Some of our governments consider us criminals,” adding, “Some directors are banned from making films, while others are forced to remain in exile, or are isolated, and despite this, the hope for creativity Once once more it is a reason to exist.”
“The history of Iranian cinema bears witness to the permanent and active presence of independent directors who fought once morest censorship and in order to ensure the continuity of this art,” Panahi pointed out in the letter, co-signed by his fellow imprisoned Iranian director, Mohammad Rasoulof.
Directors, actors and prominent figures in the film industry gathered on the red carpet before the premiere, Friday, to show solidarity with imprisoned filmmakers around the world, and uploaded pictures of some of them, including Panahi and Rasoulof.
Twenty-three films, including four Iranian films, are competing for the Golden Lion Award, which will be awarded at the end of the festival on September 10.
