One of the many pleasures of having an obsession with the movies is that one thing leads to another. A few months ago the programming team here at Mid Century Cinema stumbled across a film by Asghar Farhadi, and were so impressed that we quickly screened everything of his that we could get our hands on. The Past has now leapt onto our “best of the 2010s” list, and we look forward to talking more about at Farhadi here in the future—but this went by too quickly. Left wanting more, it seemed natural to take a deeper dive into Iranian films, which led us to Jafar Panahi.
Panahi started his career as an assistant to the legendary Abbas Kiarostami, who would write the screenplay for Panahi’s first feature,The White Balloon. The film, an accomplished neo-realist, real-time saga of an annoying little girl who wants a goldfish, shows flashes of great promise. A minor sensation, it was showered with awards and commended by Jonathan Rosenbaum in this excellent appreciation. But it’s not our sort of thing. We had a similar reaction to The Mirror, which innovatively explores the space between drama and documentary—but whose young protagonist, in the words of one critic, is “at once admirable and grating.” It may be that we don’t like children in films (on the other hand, our favorite Kiarostami is Where Is the Friends House?)
Panahi’s next feature, The Circle (written by Kambuzia Partovi) is a wildly ambitious film. Another neo-realist effort (most of the performers were non-professionals), it follows, La Ronde style, the experiences of a series of Iranian women in various forms of significant distress. The Circle won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film festival—and was promptly banned in Iran. As Roger Ebert wrote in his review of the film, “few things reveal a nation better than what it censors.” (But note it is not only obtuse Iranian authorities who view Panahi with suspicion—in April 2001 he was handcuffed and held overnight at Kennedy Airport for flying-while-Persian.) Ultimately The Circle wears its social politics rather noticeably on its sleeve, but it is a brave and important feminist film, distinguished by smart observations and sure-handed long takes.
Crimson Gold, also written by Kiarostami, was inspired by actual events (a robbery-gone wrong—it has some interesting dispositional affinities with Sidney Lumet’s Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead). The second half of this movie, which follows the travails of a pizza delivery worker diverted first by the operations of the local vice squad, and then the hospitality of a lonely customer, offers a spellbinding rumination on class politics that we much prefer to Bong Joon-ho’s venerated Parasite. A prize winner at Cannes and Chicago, Crimson Gold was, inevitably, banned in Iran. This would be the common fate of Panahi’s films. His next effort, Offside – a more lighthearted and entertaining (if often unnervingly stressful) re-visitation of the feminist terrain explored in Circle – won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, and was . . . wait for it . . . banned in Iran.
Not surprisingly, Panahi was frequently hauled in for questioning by Iranian authorities. Finally in 2010 his career was upended—briefly imprisoned and charged with crimes against the state; he would be sentenced to six years of house arrest and a twenty year ban on filmmaking or foreign travel. Nevertheless, he has made four films since then, all of which he appears in, starting with This is Not a Film. Co-directed with Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, the “print” of the movie was legendarily smuggled out of the country on a flash drive hidden inside a cake. A bit of a one-off (you can only make one film about not making a film), it was shot partially on an I-phone, with all of the characters playing themselves (including the lizard)—but watch for the late, remarkable elevator sequence.
Closed Curtain is a surrealistic parable about an artist (and his dog), on the run from powerful enemies, unspecified and unseen. It was co-directed with Partovi, who also stars in the film, apparently playing a version of Panahi (which sort of makes sense until Panahi shows up as well). The first two reels are especially impressive (and largely silent), but what follows is often perplexing, and was seen by some critics as a minor effort. Perhaps, but it leaves an indelible impression, and invites a second viewing. (It also sent us scurrying to learn more about Partovi—and to his film Border Café, which we recommend most enthusiastically, especially if you like complex stories that take place at civilizational crossroads and feature implicit feminism and a subtle sensitivity to political contexts.)
Taxi, another widely lauded film, features Panahi . . . driving a Taxi. Worth a look, it digs into major themes, is often funny, and the shouts-out to Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Woody Allen are irresistible. And it is impossible not to be moved by the appearance of one passenger, the attorney and human rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh, who is currently languishing in an Iranian prison for crimes against the state. Still, as a movie, it has its limitations—we prefer our politics more allegorical than literal, and this is a very literal film. With the exception of a rather raucous episode involving two old women and a goldfish (again with the goldfish?—well, apparently that’s a thing) the conversations with Panahi’s passengers are less than thinly veiled in their societal relevance.
Panahi’s most recent movie is our current favorite. 3 Faces, nominally something of a dramatic missing-person/found-footage story, is actually (and this took us much longer to realize than it should have) about the life trajectories of three female performers in Iran. One, who fittingly we never see onscreen, was a movie star before the 1979 revolution; the second has thrived in contemporary Iranian cinema; the third is fighting for the future she hopes to have, but may not. 3 Faces was shot in the rural districts of Mianeh, a small city tucked away in the northwest corner of Iran. The dialogue is in Persian, Azerbaijani, and Turkish. Panahi, one of seven children, was raised there (the family spoke Azeri at home). Another pleasure of the movies is that when watching 3 Faces, I felt very much at home.
The Feature Films of Jafar Panahi
1995 The White Balloon
1997 The Mirror
2000 The Circle **
2003 Crimson Gold **
2006 Offside *
2011 This Is Not a Film *
2013 Closed Curtain **
2015 Taxi
2018 3 Faces **
Pari (Fereshteh Sadre Orafaiy) will not find help in The Circle
Co-Director Kambuzia Partovi as “Writer” in Closed Curtain
Human Rights Attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh in Taxi
Iranian Film Star Behnaz Jafari in 3 Faces
Jafari and Panahi, playing Jafari and Panahi, in 3 Faces