Iranian director Jafar Panahi, who won the Golden Palm for his film at this year’s festival “It Was Just an Accident”. They waited on Monday after returning to Tehran His fans. Many of him came to welcome to the airport in Tehran And they posted videos on social networks, AFP reported, TASR writes.
Panáhí was persecuted in Iran for years – he was banned from traveling, he made his films secretly and was in prison several times. To the Cannes festival allowed him to travel For the first time in 15 yearsand won there.
After returning to Tehran on Monday in the early morning, he was welcomed by a crowd of supporters at the airport, some of them chanted: “Woman. Life. Freedom.” Went o slogan from protests that took place in Iran in the years 2022 – 2023 And they were seriously shaken by the regime.
At the same time, the director admitted at the end of his stay in Cannes that after returning to Iran, he could be prison again.
“When you make movies like this, you know you have to pay a price for it. It can be prison or a thousand other things, ” He said in an interview that took place on Sunday morning and was broadcast on Monday by France Inter.
Panáhí added that he is ready for this alternative and said he would not emigrate because in his own words “Unable to adapt to any other country than Iran”.
French film producer Philippe Martin also confirmed his return to Iran for AFP. Added that the lady even learned that received a visa for a festival in Sydney, which takes place in about ten days. Sydney Film Festival is preparing a retrospective of Panáhi’s work called Cinema in Rebellion.
Reaction of Iranian state media and authorities to According to AFP, the Golden Palm was cool. The victory of Ms. is the first gold palm for Iran since 1997, It also caused a diplomatic rupture with France. French Foreign Minister Jean-Neloel Barrot has described Madahi’s victory as “a gesture of resistance to Iranian oppression ”, what Tehran perceived as an “insult” and summoned Chargé d’Ffaires of the French embassy in Iran.
Panáže’s movie “IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDE “has a political undertone – is the story of the five Iranians who make decisions What to do with your former torturer from prison. According to AFP, the film reflects the director’s own prison experience.
Panáhí, when awarding the Cannes award, called on the Iranians at home and abroad for unity and defense of freedom. “Let’s forget the differences. The most important is the freedom of our country today, ” declared. Director Mohammad Rasulof, which from Iran recently escaped, He expressed his support for Ms. And he said that his film “soon arrives at his true audience – people in Iran”.
