Jafar Panahi rends the 'Iran' curtain again

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: While the Iran government keeps celebrated filmmaker Jafar Panahi under duress, he chooses to respond in defiance. Panahi's latest film 'Closed Curtain' which was made defying a ban on filmmaking for 20 years will be screened at the 18th International Film Festival of Kerala [IFFK-2013]. The film won Silver Bear Award for best screenplay at the Berlin Film Festival in 2013.
Iran had protested the award, calling the film an "illegal act" and demanding the Berlin Film Festival organizers "correct their behaviour." 'Closed Curtain' is co-directed by Panahi and his fellow Iranian filmmaker and long-time friend Kamboziya Partovi.
Panahi is under house arrest in Iran since 2010 along with a 20-year ban on filmmaking and scriptwriting. His latest film has been filmed entirely inside an isolated seaside villa, much of the time with the curtains drawn. It is about two socially ostracized characters and employs curtains as metaphors to symbolize the repression suffered by filmmakers in Iran, of which he has been a victim. Scenes with the curtains open were shot at the very end so that they didn't get into trouble. Panahi was convicted of "propaganda against the state" and was specifically accused of making an anti-government film without permission and inciting opposition protests after the disputed 2009 presidential election in Iran. He had also made another film under house arrest titled 'this is not a film'. It was screened at IFFK-2012.
While 'this is not a film' was smuggled out of the country by stuffing the USB inside a cake, details are scant about how he managed to do his new film. Anne Démy-Geroe, a close-follower of Iranian cinema told TOI that the way this film was made without the knowledge of the government is unknown.
"I was sitting with Jafar in his home the day after he had won the Silver Bear for 'Closed Curtain'. He was terribly excited. My question to him was how he could make the film unbeknownst to the government. He just shrugged," she said. Though the film would be screened at the IFFK, it would be unaccompanied by the crew. "We are honoured to screen his film. We are clueless as to how it was transported out of the country. No crew member would be coming," said Bina Paul, artistic director, IFFK.
The IFFK will begin on December 6.