Jafar Panahi appears at festival to introduce banned film

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi managed to work around the restrictions imposed on him by his native country’s ruling regime to debut his new movie at a film festival in the Czech Republic. Panahi is currently under house arrest after he was sentenced to six years custody and hit with a 20-year moviemaking ban over his support for opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi.
Despite strict sanctions on his work, the director’s supporters managed to smuggle his latest movie Closed Curtain out of the country, and it was shown to industry insiders at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival on Wednesday night (03Jul13).
Panahi also managed to introduce his latest project – appearing via Skype.
He received a standing ovation from the audience, and described his sadness at no longer being able to mix with his fellow filmmakers at industry events.
He said, “Unfortunately I have lost that (filmmaking) family, but my heart is with you. It is very painful for me to not be a part of society, because I make film about society… And now I live in an absolute world of melancholy.”
Closed Curtain is the second film Panahi has made since the ban was imposed in 2010.