Silenced, imprisoned, yet never stilled—Jafar Panahi returned to Cannes in 2025 after 22 years, winning the Palme d'Or for It Was Just an Accident, a taut, 24-hour thriller born from his time behind bars. Once banned from filmmaking and travel, Panahi’s camera never stopped—his living room became a film set, his taxi a mobile studio. Even under censorship, he shaped the Iranian New Wave with quiet defiance.
From The White Balloon to The Circle and Taxi, his stories unveiled the invisible chains of Iranian life. His latest win summoned praise from the world and reprimand from Tehran. Yet his lens endures—unyielding, rooted in the soil of Iran, whispering its struggle, daring to dream. At Cannes, Panahi dedicated his award to the silenced voices of Iran’s filmmakers. A filmmaker once caged, now celebrated—Panahi’s story is not just of resistance, but of cinema’s unrelenting power to witness and to speak.
Script: Apeksha Priyadarshini
Producer: Divya
Editor: Madiha Shakeel
#JafarPanahi #FilmMaker #Iranian #IranianFilmMaker #Cannes #PalmedOr #Cannes2025
From The White Balloon to The Circle and Taxi, his stories unveiled the invisible chains of Iranian life. His latest win summoned praise from the world and reprimand from Tehran. Yet his lens endures—unyielding, rooted in the soil of Iran, whispering its struggle, daring to dream. At Cannes, Panahi dedicated his award to the silenced voices of Iran’s filmmakers. A filmmaker once caged, now celebrated—Panahi’s story is not just of resistance, but of cinema’s unrelenting power to witness and to speak.
Script: Apeksha Priyadarshini
Producer: Divya
Editor: Madiha Shakeel
#JafarPanahi #FilmMaker #Iranian #IranianFilmMaker #Cannes #PalmedOr #Cannes2025
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NewsTranscript
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.