News not looking good on the Jafar Panahi front. He was arrested on March 1, and has been in prison ever since. His wife has been quite vocal about his heart condition, and also that she has been denied access to him. The Iranian regime hopes to bully him into silence, through intimidation and incarceration. It is an outrage. Iranian film-makers and artists have been courageously calling for his release, and now a group of Western filmmakers have added their voices to the mix.
Read the petition here, with signatures.
I have written about Jafar Panahi quite a bit here, my love for his films, and my concern for his welfare since he has been arrested. I won’t even get into my rage.
If you’re on Facebook, there is a group called Free Jafar Panahi, and it’s filled with links and up-to-date information, as well as suggestions of what you might be able to do to help. Publicity is essential. Bullies prefer to operate in private. Spotlights are essential to shaming those involved. Panahi originally was arrested for other “crimes”, not having to do with his films (uh-huh, yeah, right – he shoplifted when he was a teenager? He cheated on his taxes? Uh-huh), and now apparently they’ve gone back and said, “Oh, yeah, we actually DID arrest him for the films he has made, and also the film he was ABOUT to make.”
As Panahi did so wonderfully in Offside (my review here), there is a temptation to laugh at the small-minded fascist attitudes of those who have imprisoned him, but the situation really is too serious for that. These people aren’t messing around.
A petition like this will not be the “Abracadabra” that Panahi needs, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.
“Bullies prefer to operate in private.”
Yes, and they prefer to operate in an environment wherein the United States government says little, if anything, about such things. I am (literally searching for the right word)…dismayed that WE don’t seem interested in making vigorous note of the behavior of oppressive governments around the globe anymore. We seem to be more afraid of “offending” these bastards than we do of allowing such deplorable tyranny to continue. If the United States doesn’t take a stance against these fucking people(excuse me, I am getting riled up as I write this), then what do we intend to represent or mean in this world.
You’ve got me going now.
The lack of a formal response, a meaningful response, to this kind of crap sends a message around the world that it is open season on ANYONE who poses a threat, real or imagined, to oppressive regimes. We are IT, when it comes to voicing opposition to this kind of thing–if we don’t do it, nobody will. And, if we don’t do anything, we are complicit in oppression. It makes me sick, and it’s not the way I see my country.
Artists are often on the front-lines of these things. I am heartened to see this petition – I have already seen more news items about Panahi in the last 24 hours than I have in the last month, due to this petition. The screws are tightening. So we’ll see what happens. Panahi is certainly no stranger to all of this. His passport was confiscated a while back – he’s a big ol’ target for the regime – his films are some of the most openly critical coming out of Iran. They are never screened there, although thanks to modern technology everyone in Iran has seen his movies, on bootleg DVDs, the Internet, all that. The situation is terrible, but he has continued to keep making the movies he wants to make – and has stayed in Iran, refusing to live in exile as many others have done. It takes courage.
I know this is a politically explosive topic, but I do get frustrated sometimes when people show ideological support due to their hatred of Iran (not saying you’re doing that – but I see it a lot) but then don’t go out and rent the movies, get into the culture, see what Iran is up to artistically. Iranian movies are some of my favorites on the planet – and if you want to help – then support their artists. See their films. Organize a film festival at a local college. Whatever. The profiles of these directors and actors are high, already, their film industry is not a “dark horse” – they’ve been making fine films for decades now – but every little bit helps.
If Panahi is released, it will be interesting to see what will happen next for him.
Andrei Tarkovsky had similar issues – making films at the height of the Cold War – but as time went on, things got a bit easier – and he is different from Panahi in that he avoided politics altogether in his films. Tarkovsky’s films are spiritual – which I suppose could also be seen as threatening to the Soviet system – but he got away with a lot, merely because he wasn’t political. However: he ran into problems, as all artists did – and eventually defected – really against his will. He did not want to defect. He had plenty of opportunities in Russia, but they were making things difficult for him, and so he left – he died soon after, and it remains a mystery what sorts of films he would have made had he lived as an exile. His films, while universal to the extreme, seem deeply Russian to me, in their philosophy and concerns.
Panahi has played the game HIS way. He has paid an enormous price for that. It is hard to even grasp what his life has been like for the last 10 years. He has huge prestige worldwide (his film “The Circle” was an international hit – as well as Offside), but remains persecuted in his homeland. Vaclav Havel would understand the Panahi plight – he, too, was far more famous in the world “outside” than in his own land. However: Havel’s trick was to live “as if” he were free. Panahi does the same thing. He lives “as if” he were free. Who knows how many more films he would have made had he lived elsewhere – his output has been hampered by the persecution – Other filmmakers play it safe in Iran and make films that are quite good but avoid controversy. The major hit Children of Heaven (one of my favorite films of the last 20 years) is a perfect example. In order to avoid the issues Panahi is now facing, many Iranian filmmakers decide to make films about kids – that way, they avoid the problems of having to portray adult problems. Children of Heaven is marvelous – I can’t recommend it highly enough – but Panahi doesn’t go that way. He makes movies about politics and women. Those are his topics. The status of women in Iran, and the political apparatus that has a vested interest in keeping women down. He should certainly be up for Oscars. But since his films have never been screened in Iran (one of the qualifications for being considered for an Academy award), he’s not in the running.
This is yet another shameful result of the situation for artists in Iran who are, actually, quite a cosmopolitan group (no surprise there).
However: he still keeps making personal gritty crazy-good films, and continues to be hounded into the ground.
Anyway: Yes, the political situation is frightening – but I think the context of the art, and Panahi is an artist, is really important to keep in mind.
And see his films. No excuse for not seeing them.
JFH – I deleted your comment. What part of “Don’t comment on my site again” do you not understand?
I don’t even understand why you continue to read a site where you are unwelcome. Big wide web. Go play elsewhere. Otherwise, you are a troll.
Some suggestions of Iranian films I love, for people to check out, if they haven’t seen them:
Children of Heaven
Offside
The Circle
The Day I Became a Woman
Fireworks Wednesday
Half Moon
Leila
Taste of Cherry
The big news now is Kiarostami’s latest, as well as Bahman Ghobadi’s new film No One Knows About Persian Cats – which I have not seen, but I cannot WAIT. It just opened here at the IFC Theatre and I am going to go this week.
The higher the profile of these artists, the better.
The revolution is happening as we speak, the technology now is such that word of these people cannot be suppressed – and although Iranian newspapers are keeping Panahi news under tight wraps, the ease with which Iranians can access news from “outside” means that control of information is no longer possible. This is the biggest thing to happen to totalitarian regimes in the history of totalitarian regimes. Secrecy is no longer possible.
I have written before about the Iranian film student who hacked through a firewall in his university’s film lab so he could read my review of, I think, Hemlock – not sure which film – but I think it was Hemlock – and wrote me a note to tell me so. My site is blocked, due to the attention I give to Iranian films – but the nerds of the world will always find a way.
I am not a Pollyanna – but I do think that the crackdowns we have seen recently are, in many ways, a direct response to, first of all, the fact that Iran is such a country of youth – the majority of the people now in that country are under 25 years old – these are people with cell phones, and Facebook accounts, and the regime keeps trying to stamp it out, like Whack – a – mole – but it can’t be done. Cat is out of the bag.
The response now will, of course, be harsh … due to the spiraling sense that they are losing control. But big picture? Progress is winning. It’s already won. The kids in Iran are having NONE of what is going on now. And there are more of them than any other demographic at this present moment – which is potentially frightening, but potentially hopeful as well.
In the meantime: there are movies to see, dammit, so get to it!
JFH – I deleted your email without reading it.
I am serious: Leave me alone. I am doing this publicly because I am done with having private conversations with you.
Do not contact me again. I have blacklisted your email, and banned you again – I didn’t think I would HAVE to after my last communication with you where I told you in no uncertain terms to “not comment here again”. Apparently that wasn’t clear enough for you.
This is bordering on harassment, JFH. I am warning you: do not contact me again.