July 11, 2014
Film director Jafar Panahi was barred in December 2010 from making any movies for 20 years. Four years into that sentence, he has made two films flouting that admonition. The first film has been widely acclaimed and the second is being screened in New York City now.
Panahi remains outside prison, however—perhaps because his arrest in 2010 united the international entertainment world in condemning the Islamic Republic and lobbying on Panahi’s behalf.
The latest film, “Closed Curtain,” addresses the Islamic Republic’s ban on walking dogs in public. In the movie, a writer smuggles his pet dog into his home inside a tote bag. The film fits Panahi’s long and talented effort to capture the vagaries of life in Iran under the current regime.
“Closed Curtain” won the best screenplay award at the Berlin Film Festival in 2013. It opened at New York City’s Film Forum Wednesday.
The 53-year-old director first piqued the ire of Iranian authorities with “The Circle” (2000), which assailed the treatment of women under the country’s Islamist regime. Six years later in “Offside,” he mocked the prohibition on Iranian women attending professional soccer games.
To add insult to injury, when he was the jury president at the 2009 Montreal World Film Festival, Panahi persuaded fellow jurors to wear green scarves in support of Iran’s pro-democracy Green Movement.
Panahi was eventually accused of spreading propaganda and undermining national security. He was found guilty and sentenced to six years in prison—time he hasn’t yet served—and forbidden from traveling abroad or giving interviews.
He hasn’t been able to travel abroad. But this month he gave an interview by telephone to The Wall Street Journal.
Panahi first post-conviction film was the documentary, “This Is Not a Film” (2011), which was shot almost entirely in his Tehran apartment. “Closed Curtain,” which blends fiction and autobiography, was shot exclusively in his beach house beside the Caspian Sea.
Panahi told the Journal, “When I made ‘This Is Not a Film,’ that caused some difficulties for my colleague, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, who was the co-director on that film and had his passport confiscated. Again, when I collaborated with Kambuzia Partovi and the actress Maryam Moqadam on ‘Closed Curtain,’ their passports were confiscated.
“That’s why I really have to reconsider what I’m doing and come up with a small-scale project that I can shoot and sound-record myself without involving other people. I’m even thinking about not using any actors or actresses. By necessity, my movies are becoming more and more minimalistic. I realize that they will test the patience of audiences because these are not the kind of movies that I used to make or are expected of me. But in the absence of my freedom as a filmmaker, that’s all I can do.”
Panahi said, “In my past movies, I had a tendency to film a lot of exterior scenes because I had the freedom to shoot outside. But now that the authorities have forced me to abandon that environment and instead be reduced to the confines of a house, naturally my type of filmmaking has altered as well.”
The Journal asked Panahi where he found the dog that features prominently in “Closed Curtain.”
Panahi said, “We were looking for a dog in some very different places. Finally we ended up buying one from a peddler at a market near the Tehran cemetery where they also sell birds. I asked the vendor if it was legal to sell and buy dogs there and he replied that it was, but only in that corner of the city. At first, what interested us about that dog was his physique and size. But then we realized as we started playing with the dog that he was very well trained. We left the dog with Mr. Partovi at his house so that they could get accustomed to each other. Throughout we were amazed by the kind of skills the dog kept on exhibiting.”
Panahi said it took only 26 days to shoot the film. “It was a very low-budget movie because nobody received any salaries for their contributions to the film, so I ended up paying for it out of my own pocket,” he said.
“This Is Not a Film” was smuggled to the Cannes Film Festival in a flash drive hidden inside a cake. The Journal asked how he got “Closed Curtain” out of the country.
Panahi said, “Well, thanks to advancements in technology, it’s not very difficult to send a movie to a festival. All you need is to find a traveler, somebody who is going abroad, and give them your movie in a USB flash [drive]. This is very different from the way it used to be.”
This actually makes a point that President Rohani and others in his administration have been making—that it is futile to try to seal off Iran from the outside world because modern technology makes that impossible and the Islamic Republic just ends up being embarrassed by its laughable efforts.
Panahi said, “The government used to use technology against filmmakers because, in Iran, if you want to make a movie, you have to rent equipment from the government. This monopoly was another way they could control filmmaking. But today technology is so advanced that all you need to make your movie is a small [high-definition] camera. You don’t need to go to the government for equipment any more.”
The Journal interviewer noted that many Iranian directors have moved abroad and now make movies beyond the reach of Iranian censors.
“The idea of making a movie outside of Iran is not a bad idea and appeals to me as well,” Panahi said. “In fact, when my passport was first confiscated in Tehran Airport, I was about to leave the country for Paris to negotiate with producers about making a movie outside of Iran. This was six months before I was sent to jail [for three months in the spring of 2010].
“So I have no problem making a movie outside—but I would like to be able to come back to Iran. I would have a very hard time if I realized that I have to stay in exile and do not have the ability to come back to my own country.”
Panahi added, “Interestingly, when I was sentenced to this ban and to imprisonment, some friends told me that maybe that was the government’s way of telling me to get out of the country. It’s not difficult for filmmakers to leave the country, but I don’t want to flee my own country. If there is a situation whereby I can leave the country and make a movie, I would welcome that, but I need to know that I have the ability to come back.”
