Oscar-nominated Iranian director Jafar Panahi (It Was Just an Accident) used a rare public appearance on the Berlin Film Festival to denounce what he described as an “unbelievable crime” unfolding in his home country, as independent filmmakers mounted a parallel campaign to highlight artists killed and detained in a sweeping crackdown by the Islamic Republic.
In an on-stage discussion with The Hollywood Reporter’s European Bureau Chief Scott Roxborough in Berlin on Thursday, Panahi said the festival desired to retroactively present him with the Berlinale Golden Bear honor he won in 2015 for Taxi [the director, under a travel ban at the time, was unable to attend in person]. He said he declined, wanting to maintain attention fixed on the Iranian regime’s violent repression of protestors, which has resulted in tens of hundreds of deaths.
“They wanted to offer me the Golden Bear I had won for Taxi, and I refused it, due to the situation in Iran,” Panahi said. “An unbelievable crime has happened. Mass murder has happened. People aren’t even allowed to mourn their family members…The regime is forcing them into these acts. People are not looking for violence. They avoid violence. It’s the regime that forces violence upon them.”
Panahi has long resisted the label of political filmmaker, at the same time as his work and his life have been shaped by the state’s response to dissent. The present moment, he suggested, has made silence inconceivable.
“Artists are not looking for to be politically lively by themselves. It’s the regimes and governments that force them into political engagement,” he said. “Artists attempt to avoid being politically lively, but socially engaged artists cannot stay silent about what happens in society. That’s the reason so many artists, actors and actresses, and superstars have stood with the people of Iran and now face consequences. We now have many artists in prison — documentary filmmakers as well. During previous protests and demonstrations, filmmakers were arrested. When an artist is silent, they’re complicit in violence.”
Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident, was written after the director spent seven months in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison and was inspired by the stories of the political prisoners he met inside. The film follows a bunch of former prisoners who kidnap the person they imagine to be their torturer, debating whether to kill or forgive him.
“I didn’t know I desired to make a movie about this,” Panahi said. “But once I left prison, when the doors opened and I walked out and looked back at the massive partitions behind me, I thought of those still inside. It became a weight on my shoulders. After weeks and months, it grew heavier, and I made a decision to make a movie about them.”
To render that world authentically, he enlisted several of his fellow inmates, including political activist Mehdi Mahmoudian, to co-write the screenplay. Mahmoudian was recently re-arrested for condemning the actions of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei and is currently out on bail.
“Mehdi Mahmoudian has spent nearly 1 / 4 of his life in prison. He had more contact with people inside than anyone else. He knew the torturers thoroughly — how they think, what their ideology is. That was an incredible help to me.”
In December, while touring with It Was Just an Accident outside Iran, Panahi was sentenced, in abstentia, to a 12 months in prison and one other travel ban, for “propaganda activities” against the federal government. He said following the Oscars — It Was Just an Accident is nominated for best international feature and best original screenplay — he’ll return to Iran.
“Half of my existence is in Iran — my family, my mother, my sister, my brother, my son, my friends, and the society I work for. If I didn’t return, I’d betray what I imagine. As a socially engaged filmmaker, my duty is to face with the people I belong to. A physician can save lives anywhere. But my cinema exists there. I have to return and make movies there. That’s the correct thing to do. I’ll return, one hundred pc, due to who I’m and since of my beliefs.”
His remarks in Berlin unfolded alongside a coordinated effort by the Iranian Independent Filmmakers Association (IIFMA) to attract attention to artists killed and detained in the most recent wave of repression. The association, founded in 2023 within the wake of the Woman Life Freedom movement, returned to the Berlinale with a stand, a panel and a flashmob on Potsdamer Platz.
At a panel in Berlin, IIFMA board member Mahshid Zamani screened footage compiled from social media and material sent directly from Iran documenting the Jan. 8 and 9 crackdown.
“Each frame captures the courage, hope and longing that outline the Iranian spirit while also shedding light on the brutal realities imposed by a repressive, fanatic, Islamic, terrorist regime,” he said. “Tens of artists were murdered while bravely standing up for his or her beliefs within the rebellion of January 8 and 9.”
Zamani then read aloud the names of musicians, filmmakers, actors and other arts professionals confirmed killed or detained, asking the audience to applaud each. Later, IIFMA members staged a flashmob reenacting rows of body bags in Berlin’s festival district in commemoration.
In keeping with IIFMA, the next arts and culture professionals have been killed:
Ahmad Abbasi – filmmaker
Shokoufeh Abdi – photographer
Melika Dastyab – musician
Pouya Faragardi – musician
Shabnam Ferdowsi – puppeteer, graphic designer
Javad Ganji – filmmaker
Sorena Golgoun – musician
Yaser Modir-Rousta – musician
Sanam Pourbabaei – musician
Sahba Rashtian – painter and animation director
Foad Safayi – musician
Mehdi Salahshour – sculptor
Zohre Shamaeizade – script supervisor and voice actor
Mohammed “Shahou” Shirazi – singer
Mostafa Rabeti – filmmaker
Reyhaneh Yousefi – actor
Amir-Ali Zarei – musician, art student
And the next detained:
Dawood Abbasi – filmmaker and cinematographer
Ghazale Vakili – actor
Navid Zarehbin – filmmaker
Kimia Mousavi – artist