Panahi's following letter was read by the Berlinale jury president Isabella Rosselini at the opening ceremony. Jafar Panahi, the internationally acclaimed Iranian director of such award-winning films as The White Balloon, The Circle, Crimson Gold and Offside, was arrested at his home on March 1st in a raid by plain-clothed security forces. He has been held since then in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. A recent letter from Mr. Panahi’s wife expressed her deep concerns about her husband’s heart condition, and about his having been moved to a smaller cell. Mr. Panahi’s films have been banned from screening in Iran for the past ten years and he has effectively been kept from working for the past four years. Last October, his passport was confiscated and he was banned from leaving the country. Upon his arrest, Islamic Republic officials initially charged Mr. Panahi with “unspecified crimes.” They have since reversed themselves, and the charges are now specifically related to his work as a filmmaker.
Mavi Boncuk |
The world of a filmmaker is marked by the interplay between reality and dreams. The
filmmaker uses reality as his inspiration, paints it with the color of his imagination, and
creates a film that is a projection of his hopes and dreams.
The reality is I have been kept from making films for the past five years and am now
officially sentenced to be deprived of this right for another twenty years. But I know I will
keep on turning my dreams into films in my imagination. I admit as a socially conscious
filmmaker that I won’t be able to portray the daily problems and concerns of my people,
but I won’t deny myself dreaming that after twenty years all the problems will be gone and
I’ll be making films about the peace and prosperity in my country when I get a chance to
do so again.
The reality is they have deprived me of thinking and writing for twenty years, but they can
not keep me from dreaming that in twenty years inquisition and intimidation will be
replaced by freedom and free thinking.
They have deprived me of seeing the world for twenty years. I hope that when I am free, I
will be able to travel in a world without any geographic, ethnic, and ideological barriers,
where people live together freely and peacefully regardless of their beliefs and
convictions.
They have condemned me to twenty years of silence. Yet in my dreams, I scream for a
time when we can tolerate each other, respect each other’s opinions, and live for each
other.
Ultimately, the reality of my verdict is that I must spend six years in jail. I’ll live for the
next six years hoping that my dreams will become reality. I wish my fellow filmmakers in
every corner of the world would create such great films that by the time I leave the prison
I will be inspired to continue to live in the world they have dreamed of in their films.
So from now on, and for the next twenty years, I’m forced to be silent. I’m forced not to
be able to see, I’m forced not to be able to think, I’m forced not to be able to make films.
I submit to the reality of the captivity and the captors. I will look for the manifestation of
my dreams in your films, hoping to find in them what I have been deprived of.
Jafar Panahi (Persian: جعفر پناهی ; born July 11, 1960 Meyaneh, East Azarbaijan) is an Iranian filmmaker and is one of the most influential filmmakers in the Iranian New Wave movement. He has gained recognition from film theorists and critics worldwide and received numerous awards including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.
On 20 December 2010, Jafar Panahi was handed a six-year jail sentence and a 20-year ban on making or directing any movies, writing screenplays, giving any form of interview with Iranian or foreign media as well as leaving the country.
Mavi Boncuk |
The world of a filmmaker is marked by the interplay between reality and dreams. The
filmmaker uses reality as his inspiration, paints it with the color of his imagination, and
creates a film that is a projection of his hopes and dreams.
The reality is I have been kept from making films for the past five years and am now
officially sentenced to be deprived of this right for another twenty years. But I know I will
keep on turning my dreams into films in my imagination. I admit as a socially conscious
filmmaker that I won’t be able to portray the daily problems and concerns of my people,
but I won’t deny myself dreaming that after twenty years all the problems will be gone and
I’ll be making films about the peace and prosperity in my country when I get a chance to
do so again.
The reality is they have deprived me of thinking and writing for twenty years, but they can
not keep me from dreaming that in twenty years inquisition and intimidation will be
replaced by freedom and free thinking.
They have deprived me of seeing the world for twenty years. I hope that when I am free, I
will be able to travel in a world without any geographic, ethnic, and ideological barriers,
where people live together freely and peacefully regardless of their beliefs and
convictions.
They have condemned me to twenty years of silence. Yet in my dreams, I scream for a
time when we can tolerate each other, respect each other’s opinions, and live for each
other.
Ultimately, the reality of my verdict is that I must spend six years in jail. I’ll live for the
next six years hoping that my dreams will become reality. I wish my fellow filmmakers in
every corner of the world would create such great films that by the time I leave the prison
I will be inspired to continue to live in the world they have dreamed of in their films.
So from now on, and for the next twenty years, I’m forced to be silent. I’m forced not to
be able to see, I’m forced not to be able to think, I’m forced not to be able to make films.
I submit to the reality of the captivity and the captors. I will look for the manifestation of
my dreams in your films, hoping to find in them what I have been deprived of.
Jafar Panahi (Persian: جعفر پناهی ; born July 11, 1960 Meyaneh, East Azarbaijan) is an Iranian filmmaker and is one of the most influential filmmakers in the Iranian New Wave movement. He has gained recognition from film theorists and critics worldwide and received numerous awards including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.
On 20 December 2010, Jafar Panahi was handed a six-year jail sentence and a 20-year ban on making or directing any movies, writing screenplays, giving any form of interview with Iranian or foreign media as well as leaving the country.
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