Jafar Panahi: the director leaves Iran after 14 years of being banned from leaving the country

Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi has left his country for the first time in nearly fourteen years for a stay in France, his lawyer announced on Wednesday April 26. He had been banned from leaving the territory since 2010, when he was sentenced to six years in prison for "propaganda against the system".

"After having served his sentence, Jafar Panahi was authorized to leave the country and obtained his passport", indicated Saleh Nikbakht. On Tuesday evening, the filmmaker's wife posted a photo of them at an airport on her Instagram page, showing her joy at leaving the country. Nikbakht confirmed for his part that the director was going to France to visit his daughter who lives there, without specifying the duration of the stay. Arrested on July 11, 2022 in Tehran, Jafar Panahi was released in February, two days after going on a hunger strike to protest against his conditions of detention. “As far as I know, there are no more court files against him,” his lawyer said.

Jafar Panahi won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2000 for The Circle, then the Golden Bear in Berlin for Taxi in 2015 before winning Best Screenplay for Three Faces at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018. His latest film, No Bears, which like most of his recent works features him directly, was screened in 2022 at the Venice Film Festival when he was already imprisoned. He won the Special Jury Prize.