Director Jafar Panasi is a representative figure in Iranian films. His early film works such as "The White Balloon", "Who Can Take Me Home" and "The Circle of Life" have left a deep impression on the audience. However, the films he made after 2000, with the exception of "Offside" with a mild female theme, have all become banned in Iran, and even "Circle of Life", which earned him a reputation in the early days, and later films "Crimson Gold" is also included. In 2010, he was sentenced to six years in prison by the government for "endangering national security" and "implementing propaganda against the Islamic Republic" for supporting the political stance of Iran's opposition party (he was placed under house arrest after paying huge bail), and banned him for 20 years. Produce or shoot films, write screenplays, receive any media interviews and leave the country during the year.
However, Jaffa, who was under house arrest at home, did not stop paying attention to reality. Although he could not make films directly, he became more and more brave. In various ways, he made a series of films, which caused huge repercussions in the world. From "This Is Not a Movie" and "The Closing" to "Taxi", which won the Berlin Golden Bear last year, Jafar Panasi's films are becoming more and more personal, but their attention and criticism of reality are far more than ever . He was not trapped by the ban, but forced out a piece of free sky in the narrow gap.
While he was awaiting his final verdict, he filmed "This Is Not a Movie," which reflected his current state of affairs. It's really not a movie, although it's reflected in the form of a movie, you can't even pinpoint the genre. It is neither a drama nor a documentary, just a record of a day in the life of Jafar Panasi, and a day in the life of staying at home. He faces the camera alone on this day, or the photographer, like a lion in a cage. Bored and hopeless, but never despair, using his own unique way to bypass the ban and break through the ban to allow himself to speak out and express his strong dissatisfaction. But the approach taken is quite mild, even full of humor.
The protagonist in the film is only the director himself, but the film is not dull, and does not fall into the director's subjective, on the contrary, it is very interesting, and through the phone, through the various people who come to visit, through the voices outside the window , the film transcends the small space of the apartment in the film, and integrates the reality of the entire Iranian society into the film quietly. From the film, we can see not only the pain of the director himself, the reasons for his imprisonment, but also his bitter mockery of reality. He read aloud the script he could not shoot or publish in the living room. In the script, the girl who wanted to go to art school and was locked in the room could only see the outside world through the window. Isn't this the director's bitterness?
In "This Is Not a Movie", he is expressing the pain that he cannot create, and he is sarcastically at the system that imprisoned him in the form of humor. In the subsequent "Closing", he used interlaced time and space and bold imagination to express his claustrophobic life. Both of these two shots are confined to the room. Although we can feel the situation in the outside world and hear his criticism of reality through the director's various efforts, after all, we cannot follow his lens to perceive the Iranians. Real life, perceive the joys, sorrows and sorrows of those ordinary citizens. In "Taxi", Jafar Panasi broke through the limitations of the previous two films with his wisdom, and penetrated into the streets of Tehran. Without saying a word and objectively, he showed the audience a most ordinary Iranian society that is difficult to understand from the outside world.
Around the time that the house arrest was lifted by the government, Jafar Panahi was finally able to walk out of his apartment. But the restrictions on his filming have not been lifted. He can only play smart, drive a taxi, hide the camera in the car, and secretly record what he sees in the process of driving the taxi. everything of. This is indeed a good idea, which not only avoids the restriction that he cannot make movies, but also is a means to record more people in the market in the shortest time. I don’t know if it was a deliberate arrangement for filming, or the streets of Tehran are full of stories. During this day as a taxi driver, the director did meet people from all walks of life, and encountered colorful lives. The story is what makes this film seem extraordinarily full.
The director's wandering day has been very rewarding. I took a few interesting passengers and met a few relatives, friends or acquaintances. The transformation of these characters actually divided the film into seven parts, telling seven different stories. From the man who is good at reading pirated discs, to the two old ladies who went to Qingquan Mountain with a goldfish bowl in their hands; from the tricycle driver who kept calling and trying to make a will to his wife after a car accident, to the time when he grew up with the director Neighbors tell their tragic fate; each story is vivid and full of market flavor, and behind each story, there is a hidden social reality in Iran.
The film begins with a heated discussion. A female teacher got into a car with a self-proclaimed freelancer and quarreled over whether the thief should be sentenced to death. Freelancers think thieves are too abhorrent and should be resolutely executed; female teachers think the crime of stealing does not lead to death. When the freelancer got out of the car, he yelled at the female teacher: "I'm a thief!" At that time, Iranian society was preparing to impose heavy sentences on all petty crimes at the time of the revision of the law.
And the niece that the director was ordered to pick up was a rambling little girl. School assignments require a camera to shoot a film that can be released. When the little boy on the street picked up the groom's wallet, she paid the little boy and asked him to return the wallet, because there was no need to collect gold, and it did not meet the requirements of a film celebrating the spirit of sacrifice. She conveyed the teacher's request to the director, that women must wear veils, men and women are not allowed to have contact, they are not allowed to show a miserable life, they are not allowed to have scenes of violence, political and economic topics are not allowed, decent characters are not allowed to wear ties, and It is allowed to use the name of Persia... She asked her uncle in a puzzled way: Since it is the truth, why are there positive and negative ones?
The most intense criticism of reality came from the female lawyer that Jafar Panasi met on the road. She's a human rights lawyer, and she's on her way to a prison visit to visit a girl who's been held for 108 days, and now she's been on a hunger strike for 10 days. The crime was the same as Panasi's "Offside", and he went to the ball with several girls, but he was arrested as soon as he got to the door. In fact, the situation of the female lawyer herself is not much better than that of the girl. She was punished by the Lawyers Association and banned from practicing as a lawyer for three years. She complained to Panasi angrily: "We are being watched by them, and we are living on. Their usual trick: First, they will fabricate a fact to frame you, saying that you are a Mossad or CIA spy. Then you will be detained. Put on the hats of corrupt morals. They turn your life into a prison. When you walk out of the house, the city becomes a big prison. They make your best friend into an enemy. Either you have to escape, or you can only I can look forward to being in jail."
Her resentment was a familiar one for Panasi, because he felt the same way. They can understand the anger of the various passers-by walking on the street, but they still have to live their lives and everything has to go on. They still have to rely on their own wisdom and sophistication in this airtight world, struggling to find a gap so that they can breathe. Just like the man who sells pirated discs, he has been able to do well in such a society, and he tries his best to use the resources at his hand to benefit himself. And he values his professional honor: if it weren't for me, how could you see Woody Allen! I am also contributing to the cultural cause of Iran. Just like the director's old neighbor, he recognized the person who robbed and hurt himself, and still lived as if nothing had happened. He was full of resentment and felt the greatest pain, but in the end he chose tolerance. Because he knew that this person was as compelled by life as he was, and the recent crackdown by the government made him even more hesitant. If he reports, there is a good chance the man will be sentenced to death.
In our impression, Iran is a closed society, with various rules and regulations that shackle people's behavior. Such a society should be gray and lifeless. But the film "Taxi" presents the audience with a vivid picture of the market. We can feel all kinds of tangible and intangible restrictions from the film, and we can also see that anger breeds in such a society, but in such a harsh society, small people also have their own wisdom in life and are also pursuing freedom. life. You can surround the borders to limit people's freedom, but you can't put an end to the yearning for freedom in people's hearts. Freedom is like the wind passing through the wall from all sides, blowing every soul that longs for freedom; it is also like the seed suppressed by the boulder, it will always flourish from the cracks.
Jafar Panasi's directorial experience is actually a legendary story, full of surprises and twists and turns. As the assistant director of the famous director Abbas, he started by shooting children's films. Although it also focuses on reality, its critical edge is not sharp. In fact, until the filming of "Crimson Gold", it was only a thorny flower. But the subsequent "Offside", despite its mild criticism of feminism, has actually returned to the mainstream. But the government's intervention turned this thorny flower into thorns. You can deprive him of the right to make a movie he loves, how can you restrict him from expressing his opinion? Indeed, Jaffa Panahi made his voice very clear with "This Is Not a Movie" and "Taxi" and made his voice heard all over the world. Of course, the ending of "Taxi" also hints at his own destiny. Two secret police officers smashed open his car, searching for the memory card of the camera in the car.
However, "Taxi" eventually appeared on screens around the world. Although he was unable to go to Berlin to receive the Golden Bear himself, his niece, the little girl who appeared in the film, took it on his behalf. Faced with an empty podium, who is the one to be embarrassed about?
In a protest of the Iranian people a few years ago, this slogan was shouted: "You can destroy the flowers, but you can't prevent the arrival of spring!" It surprised me at the time, but after watching a few films of Jafar Panasi , I began to understand the seemingly silent Iranian people.
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