The Venice Film Festival has selected four Iranian films to its official 2022 list, sending a clear political message to Tehran, which has received international condemnation for a recent crackdown on film critics. local filmmaking.
Just days after famed Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi was arrested and ordered to serve a six-year prison sentence, Venice revealed on Tuesday that it will screen his latest film. , No bears, in this year’s competition. The film, like all of Panahi’s recent work, was shot in secret because the director was banned from working in his home country.
Also debuting in this year’s Venice competition is Beyond the wall from Iranian director Vahid Jalilvand. A favorite of Lido, features of Jalilvand No date, no signature won best director and best actor, the latter for star Navid Mohammadzadeh, in Venice’s Horizon 2017. His latest film is a metaphor about a person. A blind man whose life begins to fall apart when a wandering woman enters his world.
Another powerful allegory is that of Arian Vazirdaftari There is no her. The film, which will premiere on Venice’s Horizons Extra sidebar, follows Roya, an immigrant woman from Iran who meets a young woman who appears to have amnesia. Roya began offering her a home, introducing her to friends and family, unaware that the woman had come to take her place.
Completing Venice’s Iranian quartet is Third World War directed by Houman Seyedi, will premiere at Horizons in Venice. Details about this feature are being kept private.
By giving such a prominent place to Iranian directors, Venice is sure to spark debates and discussions about Tehran’s censorship and suppression of its filmmaking community. In addition to Panahi, two other prominent filmmakers – Mostafa Aleahmad (Poosteh) and Mohammad Rasoulof (There is no evil) – was arrested earlier this month for social media posts about a building collapse, which killed more than 40 people. They are currently in custody.
Panahi is the most famous dissident director in Iran. He was arrested in 2010 for supporting anti-government protests and sentenced to six years in prison, as well as being banned from making films and not allowed to go outside of Iran for 20 years. He served a two-month sentence before being released on conditional bail. Panahi won the Golden Bear in Berlin with taxi in 2015 and won Best Screenplay at Cannes with Three Faces in 2018, two movies were filmed in secret while he was officially banned by the state.
