Dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi's presence in Cannes speaks volumes

CANNES, France — Before this week, the dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi hadn't attended the premiere of one of his films in more than 15 years.

Panahi, one of the leading international directors, was banned from traveling out of Iran in 2009 for attending the funeral of a student killed in the Green Movement protests, a judgment later extended to two decades. But even when placed under house arrest, Panahi kept making movies, many of which are among the most lauded of the century. He made 2011's ''This Is Not a Film'' on an iPhone in his living room. ''Taxi'' (2015) was clandestinely shot almost entirely within a car.

These and other films of Panahi's premiered to considerable acclaim at international film festivals where the director's conspicuous absence was sometimes noted by an empty chair. When his last film, 2022's ''No Bears,'' debuted, he was in jail. Only after his hunger strike made worldwide news was Panahi — who had gone to Tehran's Evin Prison to inquire about his friend, the then-jailed filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof — released, in early 2023.

Two years later, with his travel ban finally lifted, Panahi arrived at the Cannes Film Festival with a film, ''It Was Just an Accident,'' riven with the fury and pain of incarceration by the Islamic Republic.

''Being here does matter, of course. But what's even more important is that the film is here,'' Panahi said in an interview on a Palais terrace. ''Even when I went to jail, I was happy that the film was done. I didn't mind being in prison because my job was done.''

Yet Panahi's appearance in Cannes, where the film premiered Tuesday, carries tremendous meaning — and risk — for a filmmaker who has played such a massive role in international cinema in absentia. But for a director who has previously had his films smuggled out of Iran on USB drives, risk is a constant for Panahi.

''Yes, this is an ongoing risk,'' he says, speaking through an interpreter. ''Now it will probably be higher. But the Iran situation is unpredictable. It changes everyday. New politics everyday. So we have to see what happens the day we go back.''

Last year, in order to reach Cannes, Panahi's countryman Rasoulof crossed the Iranian border on foot before resettling in Germany. (His film, ''The Seed of the Sacred Fig,'' was ultimately nominated for best international film at the Oscars.) Panahi says they speak every other day. After the premiere of ''It Was Just an Accident,'' Rasoulof texted Panahi to congratulate him on the moment.

Unlike Rasoulof, though, Panahi — whose ''No Bears'' captured him emotionally gazing across, but not crossing, the border — has no plans to flee.

''I'm flying back to Tehran on Sunday,'' he says.

''It's simple. I'm unable to live here,'' he elaborates. ''I have no ability to adapt to a new country, a new culture. Some people have this ability, this strength. I don't.''

What Panahi does have, as his latest film shows once again, is the ability to deftly lace complicated feelings of resistance, sorrow and hope into gripping movies of elegant, if heartbreaking, composition.

In ''It Was Just an Accident,'' which is in competition for the Palme d'Or in Cannes, a man named Vahid (played by Vahid Mobasser) believes he sees his former captor and torturer. Though blindfolded while imprisoned, Vahid recognizes the sound of the man's prosthetic leg. He abducts him, takes him to the desert and begins to bury him in the ground.

But to satisfy pangs of doubt, Vahid decides to confirm his suspicion by bringing the man, locked in his van, to other former prisoners for identification. In this strange odyssey, they are all forced to confront revenge or forgiveness for the man who ruined their lives. Panahi drew from his own imprisonment but also from the stories of detainees jailed alongside him.

''It was the experience of all these people I met in prison, mixed with my own perception and experience,'' said Panahi. ''For instance, the fact of never seeing the face of your interrogator is everyone's experience. But then the people who have spent over a decade in prison have more experience than myself, so I've been very sensitive to their narratives.''

''It Was Just an Accident'' may be Panahi's most politically direct film yet. It's certainly his most anguished. That's a product of not just his personal experience in prison but of the protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini.

''I think ultimately violence will be inevitable. And it's exactly what the regime wants, because it gives a justification to the repression,'' says Panahi. ''The longer they remain and the more pressure they put on the people, the more the people will feel that they have no other solution. And that's when it will get dangerous.''

That doesn't mean Panahi is without hope.

''The Iranians' struggle and fight for freedom is extremely precious,'' he says. ''What people are doing is so impressive. The regime is just trying to divide us. That's all they focus on now, to create division between the people.''

In Iran, film productions need to receive script approval from the government to shoot in public. Panahi refuses to do that, knowing they won't allow him to make the films he wants to. So committed is he to making film, he notes that the downside to being able to travel is that he might have to spend a year promoting his film, instead of making the next one. On Thursday, Neon acquired the North American distribution rights.

''There's nothing else I can do. Maybe if I had other abilities, I would have changed to something else,'' Panahi says. ''When you know that's the only thing you can do, you find ways. Now, I've gotten used to it. It was harder at the beginning. There were less people doing underground films. We started this fashion, in a way, so there are ways we have learned and practiced, many of us.''

More than perhaps any filmmaker on earth, you can expect Panahi to find a way to keep making movies, no matter the circumstances.

''I'll try,'' he nods, ''at least.''

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