Jafar Panahi

Jafar Panahi

Born: July 11, 1960
in Mianeh, Iran
Jafar Panahi is a representative of Iranian “New Wave.” He is one of the leaders of contemporary Iranian cinema. Panahi’s work, from his first attempts to discuss social issues to his later and braver discussions of taboo topics in Iran are a creative reflection on the nature of cinema and human society, and are imbued with humanity. In 2010, the court in Iran sentenced Jafar Panahi to six years in prison. In addition, according to the sentence, Panahi was banned from making films for 20 years, giving interviews to local and international media outlets, and leaving Iran. Three Faces was his fourth film (after This Is Not a Film, Closed Curtain, and Taxi) shot after his arrest. The director did not attend the premiere due to being banned from leaving Iran. Panahi is a student of Abbas Kiarostami, whose influence is especially clear in Three Faces, reminiscent of such acclaimed masterpieces as The Wind Will Carry Us and Taste of Cherry.

Movies for Jafar Panahi...

And, Towards Happy Alleys
Title: And, Towards Happy Alleys
Character: Self
Released: February 21, 2023
Type: Movie
A passionate declaration of love for the cinema and poetry of Iran, which also offers a frank view of the precarious situation for critics of the regime and shows the uncompromising daily struggle of Iranian women against their oppression.
bee
No Bears
Title: No Bears
Character: Jafar Panahi
Released: October 6, 2022
Type: Movie
Iranian director Jafar Panahi, who has been barred from leaving the country, arrives at a village on the Iran-Turkey border to supervise a film based on a real-life couple seeking passports to Europe being shot in Turkey, but both his stay and the production run into trouble.
bee
Jiseok
Title: Jiseok
Character: Self
Released: October 6, 2022
Type: Movie
On May 18, 2017, the Busan International Film Festival’s Program Director Kim Jiseok died suddenly and unexpectedly from a heart attack while on a business trip to the Cannes Film Festival. In the face of his unexpected demise, his old friends and colleagues in the film industry recall what tormented him in his last days.
bee
The Year of the Everlasting Storm
Title: The Year of the Everlasting Storm
Released: September 3, 2021
Type: Movie
Featuring seven stories from seven auteurs from around the world, the film chronicles this unprecedented moment in time, and is a true love letter to the power of cinema and its storytellers.
bee
Life
Title: Life
Released: July 14, 2021
Type: Movie
A portrait of the Panahi family's matriarch as the pandemic makes it more difficult for intergenerational connection.
bee
Nasrin
Title: Nasrin
Character: Self
Released: October 1, 2020
Type: Movie
Secretly filmed in Iran for over two years, Nasrin is an immersive portrait of human rights activist and political prisoner Nasrin Sotoudeh and Iran’s remarkably resilient women’s rights movement. Nasrin has long fought for the rights of women, children, LGBT prisoners, religious minorities, journalists and artists, and those facing the death penalty. She was arrested in 2018 for representing women who protested Iran’s mandatory hijab law and sentenced to 38 years in prison, plus 148 lashes. Narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Olivia Colman and featuring acclaimed filmmaker Jafar Panahi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, journalist Ann Curry, exiled women’s rights activist Mansoureh Shojaee, and Nasrin Sotoudeh.
bee
Hidden
Title: Hidden
Character: Self
Released: September 21, 2020
Type: Movie
Jafar Panahi sets out to find a Kurdish young woman with a golden voice that has been forbidden to sing by her family.
bee
3 Faces
Title: 3 Faces
Character: Jafar Panahi
Released: June 6, 2018
Type: Movie
Filmmaker Jafar Panahi and actor Behnaz Jafari travel to a tiny village after receiving a plea for help from a girl whose family has forbidden her from studying acting. Amusing encounters abound, but they soon discover that the local hospitality is rivaled by the desire to protect old traditions.
bee
Where Are You, Jafar Panahi?
Title: Where Are You, Jafar Panahi?
Character: himself
Released: November 7, 2016
Type: Movie
Jafar Panahi and fellow Iranian director Majid Barzegar take a 20-minute drive to Kiarostami’s grave, during which time “the two friends speak appropriately of cinema, but also censorship and festivals, police power and ideology.”
bee
76 Minutes and 15 seconds with Abbas Kiarostami
Title: 76 Minutes and 15 seconds with Abbas Kiarostami
Character: Himself
Released: August 31, 2016
Type: Movie
Kiarostami as we have never really known him before, despite the transformative power of his many movies. Filmmaker and close friend Samadian avoids the talking heads of so many artistic memoirs to offer more candid clips of Kiarostami the man: lover of poetry, convivial with friends, engaging landscapes on and off screen, laughing with other artists. The artist and visionary emerges more clearly but so does a loving, wondrous man whom we will miss now as much as the auteur.
bee
Taxi
Title: Taxi
Character: Self
Released: April 15, 2015
Type: Movie
A yellow cab is driving through the vibrant and colourful streets of Tehran. Very diverse passengers enter the taxi, each candidly expressing their views while being interviewed by the driver who is no one else but the director Jafar Panahi himself. His camera placed on the dashboard of his mobile film studio captures the spirit of Iranian society through this comedic and dramatic drive…
bee
Closed Curtain
Title: Closed Curtain
Character: Himself
Released: February 12, 2013
Type: Movie
A man, his dog, a young woman and a filmmaker in a house by the Caspian Sea. All three are wanted, but they are also in search of each other. Thus begins an absurd game in which reality and fiction merge.
bee
This Is Not a Film
Title: This Is Not a Film
Character: Self
Released: September 27, 2011
Type: Movie
Renowned Iranian director Jafar Panahi received a 6-year prison sentence and a 20-year ban from filmmaking and conducting interviews with foreign press due to his open support for the opposition party in Iran's 2009 election. In this film, which was shot secretly by Panahi's close friend Mojtaba Mirtahmasb and smuggled into France on a USB stick concealed inside a cake for a last-minute submission to Cannes, Panahi documents his daily life under house arrest as he awaits a decision on his appeal.
bee
Crítico
Title: Crítico
Character: Self
Released: January 22, 2008
Type: Movie
Seventy critics and filmmakers discuss cinema around the conflict between the artist and the observer, the creator and the critic. Between 1998 and 2007, Kléber Mendonça Filho recorded testimonies about this relationship in Brazil, the United States and Europe, based on his experience as a critic.
bee
Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution
Title: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution
Character: Himself
Released: May 18, 2006
Type: Movie
Today Iranian cinema is one of the most highly regarded national cinemas in the world, regularly winning festival awards and critical acclaim for films which combine remarkable artistry and social relevance. Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution traces the development of this film industry, which has always been closely intertwined with the country's tumultuous political history, from the decades-long reign of Reza Shah Pahlevi and his son, the rise of Khomeini and the birth of the Islamic Republic, the seizure by militants of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, and the devastating war with Iraq.
bee
Cinema Iran
Title: Cinema Iran
Character: Self
Released: May 4, 2005
Type: Movie
Tracing the history and influence of Iranian cinema and its filmmakers.
bee
Journey to the Land of the Traveler
Title: Journey to the Land of the Traveler
Released: March 18, 2004
Type: Movie
Twenty years after The Traveler was made, Kiarostami's son filmed his father as he reunited with the film's child star, now in his 30s.
bee
Behind the Scenes of 'Under the Olive Trees'
Title: Behind the Scenes of 'Under the Olive Trees'
Character: Self
Released: December 31, 1994
Type: Movie
A documentary by Hamideh Sharif Rad about Abbas Kiarostami's "Through the Olive Trees" (1994).
bee
Through the Olive Trees
Title: Through the Olive Trees
Character: Self
Released: February 1, 1994
Type: Movie
Complications arise in a director's attempt to film a scene in Life, and Nothing more... (1992).