After winning Palme d’Or at Cannes for his stunning thriller It Was Just An Accident, one of Iran’s most celebrated filmmakers Jafar Panahi has called for the fall of the Tehran regime, against the backdrop of escalating conflict between Israel and Iran.
Panahi posted a powerful message on Instagram that appears to push for the toppling of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In his impassioned appeal, Panahi urges the United Nations and the international community to "immediately and decisively compel both regimes to cease their military attacks and end the killing of civilians.”
The filmmaker, whose current whereabouts remain unknown, goes further: “The only possible way to escape is the immediate dissolution of this system and the establishment of a people’s responsive and democratic government.”
While strongly condemning the Israeli aggression, Jafar Panahi takes aim at the Islamic Republic: “An attack against my homeland, Iran, is unacceptable. Israel has violated the integrity of the country and should be tried as a wartime aggressors before an international tribunal. This position in no way means that we should ignore four decades of mismanagement, corruption, oppression, tyranny and incompetence on the part of the Islamic Republic."
He concludes by saying: “This government has neither the power, will, nor legitimacy required to run the country or manage crises. Staying in this regime means the continued fall and the continuation of the repression.”
The 64-year-old dissident director has been imprisoned twice in Iran and banned from filmmaking for his anti-regime stance and “propaganda against the state”. He spent seven months behind bars in 2022 and 2023 for demonstrating against the imprisonment of his friend and fellow filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof.
Panahi has continued to make films in defiance of the repressive authorities and is best known for films like This Is Not a Film, No Bears and Taxi Tehran, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2015.
After winning the Palme d'Or on 24 May, Panahi returned to Iran, despite the threats against him. As he left the airport, he was greeted by supporters. One person was heard shouting "woman, life, freedom" as Panahi passed through the airport - a phrase that became the slogan for protests that broke out across Iran following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody in 2022.
Panahi recently travelled to Australia where he won the Sydney Film Festival’s top prize on Sunday for It Was Just An Accident. The Palme d’Or winning film, which was inspired by his time in Iranian prison, focuses on a group of former political prisoners who kidnap the man they believe to be their former torturer.
In our review of It Was Just An Accident, we said: “Panahi signs a taut, gripping and utterly engrossing thriller that doubles as an indictment of the Islamist Republic and calls out the sins of state despotism. (...) Not only is it a richly deserved Palme d’Or, the last scene will make your jaw drop to the floor.”
Check out our full Culture Catch-Up on Jafar Panahi and the politics of Iranian film.
It Was Just An Accident will be released in France on 1 October. Mubi has acquired distribution rights to the film in the UK, Ireland, Germany and Austria, and Neon has bought the rights for North America. Release dates in these territories are TBD.
