00:00We are making a place that one is going to show what we will do, what we will do, what we will do, what we will do.
00:13And cinema is going to show what we will do and what we will do.
00:30This is Jafar Panahi, Iranian filmmaker.
00:40Silenced by bans, imprisoned for his voice,
00:43yet in 2025, he returned to Cannes after 22 years to claim the Palme d'Or.
00:50His film, It Was Just an Accident, is a taut moral thriller unfolding over 24 hours.
00:55Former prisoners, scarred by their torturer, debate revenge,
00:59a story born from Panahi's own time in prison.
01:03At Cannes, he dedicated his win to Iran's silenced filmmakers.
01:15Panahi shaped the Iranian new wave.
01:18His early films, The White Balloon and The Mirror,
01:21wove ordinary lives with tender precision.
01:23As censorship grew in Iran, his lens sharpened.
01:27The circle unveiled social chains.
01:30Offsite caught quiet rebellions.
01:32Banned from filmmaking and travel since 2010 and arrested in 2009, 10 and 22 in Evan Prison.
01:41Freed in 2023 after a hunger strike.
01:45Still, he continued filming.
01:46In secret, his living room became a set for This Is Not a Film.
01:52A common taxi became his studio for his film Taxi, which won Berlin's Golden Bear.
01:57Smuggled to the world, his stories defied silence.
02:01He stayed in Iran.
02:02His camera never still.
02:04Now, the fourth director to conquer Cannes, Berlin's Golden Bear for Taxi,
02:09and Venice's Golden Lion for The Circle.
02:11His wind sparks praise abroad and in Iran's rebuke, summoning France's envoy.
02:17Yet in Tehran, his next film remains uncertain.
02:21Panahi's lens carries Iran's breath, its struggle and its dream.
02:26His lens remain unyielding.
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