NEW YORK (AP) — The Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been imprisoned, banned from traveling, put under house arrest and ordered to stop making films for 20 years. And, yet, Panahi has continually made films. Many of them rank among the greatest of the century.
Most would call that courageous. Not Panahi.
“My problem was that I was told not to make films. I had to make films. It’s very simple,” Panahi says. “I can come and claim I make things for my masses, for my people, for my country. No, I’m just looking for ways to make films.
“I looked for solutions and I found them.”
And, since he was first jailed in 2009, Panahi has found some extraordinary solutions. He made “Taxi” (2015) largely inside a car, serving as driver himself. “This Is Not a Film” (2011), he made in his living room, on an iPhone.
To evade authorities, the 65-year-old Panahi has often had to direct scenes remotely, or switch locations on a near-daily basis. His latest, “It Was Just an Accident,” was made clandestinely in Iran following a seven-month stint in prison that only ended in 2023 once Panahi went on a hunger strike. He made the movie, opening in the U.S. this week, inspired by the stories his fellow prisoners told.