Strong Iranian Presence at Venice Reflects Country’s Burst of Cinematic Energy
variety.comNick Vivarelli International Correspondent Iranian cinema is having a great year despite the many impediments film directors face there, including being jailed.
Reflecting this burst of irrepressible cinematic energy, after strong showing of Iranian cinema at Berlin, Cannes and Karlovy Vary, Venice has five films from the country, two of which are in competition.
Also, Leila Hatami, star of Cannes festival jurist Asghar Farhadi’s “A Separation,” is a member of Venice’s main jury panel. “We have never received so many submissions from Iran, and many of them are good,” says Venice chief Alberto Barbera.
He notes that “the paradox is that this is happening at a time when the Iranian regime is among the most rigidly conservative and repressive in the world,” and is responding to uprisings sparked by the country’s harsh economic conditions by re-incarcerating directors such as Jafar Panahi, whose latest film “No Bears” launches from Venice, fellow dissident filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, and others “who try to freely express their opposing points of view.” Barbera calls Panahi’s “No Bears,” which interweaves two parallel stories where the lovers face hidden obstacles, including the force of Iranian superstition and the country’s power dynamics, “his best film in a decade,” noting that “it’s not a political film.
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