There would be few cinephiles unaware of events over
the last year concerning Jafar Panahi and his younger filmmaking
colleague, Mohammad Rasoulof, which culminated in their receiving a
six-year jail sentence and a twenty-year prohibition on leaving
Iran or participating in the film industry. (The sentence is
currently, as of April 2011, under appeal.) Imprisonment for
political activities in Iran is relatively common, with a number of
lawyers recently receiving harsh sentences for simply defending
their clients. The banning of films is also common.
Jafar Panahi combines two of his favourite motifs - children and
musicians - in this delicate parable about compassion.
The winner of the Camera d'Or at Cannes Film Festival, the
simple tale of a child's quest for a goldfish is turned into much
more thanks to director Jafar Panahi's unique vision.
Jafar Panahi's award-winning blend of doco and narrative follows
a child trying to get home in the terrifying chaos of Tehran's
traffic.
The award-winning film about the daily struggles of the women in
the poorer classes in Iran that brought Jafar Panahi's concern with
social issues to the fore.
Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival, Jafar
Panahi's melancholy portrait of a Tehran pizza deliveryman and
small-time thief.
Mohammad Rasoulof's colourful and whimsical tale set on a rusty
oil tanker in the Persian Gulf, where several hundred families
live, love and work under the stern eye of Captain Nemat.
Jafar Panahi's most popular and engaging film follows a group of
soccer-mad young women who disguise themselves as boys to sneak
inside a World Cup qualifying match in Iran.
In Mohammad Rasoulof's allegorical fable, a man travels by boat
around the villages of a remote salt lake, literally collecting
people's tears and bottling their secrets.
Three workers share a disused gas pipe for shelter in the
altered landscape of a massive Iranian gas refinery in this wryly
observant film.