Jafar Panahi’s second film made in secret while under house arrest. The action takes place at a remote villa where a group of characters have gathered, including the filmmaker and his codirector Kamboziya Partovi. This nonlinear narrative essay (involving a mystery) pits the question of external imprisonment against the need – and the responsibility – for internal freedom. The film took the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at this year’s Berlinale.
As soon as the Iranian government banned him from directing motion pictures, Jafar Panahi began to realize his work in secret, in the severely limited environment of house arrest. And so, after the documentary This Is Not a Film (2011), he made another work, this time symbolic in nature. Closed Curtain also pits the reality of external imprisonment against the need – and the responsibility – for internal freedom. The cryptic concept not only resists the totalitarianism of present-day Iran but also traditional narrative approaches. The protagonist of the story is a screenwriter (played by codirector Kamboziya Partovi) who arrives at a remote villa on the beach with a dog he is hiding from the authorities: according to Islamic custom, dogs are considered unclean. Two other refugees find a haven in the villa – but the dominant figure is Panahi himself when he turns up unexpectedly at the villa with a film crew and tries to get his characters under control.
106 min / Color, DCP
Director Jafar Panahi, Kamboziya Partovi
/ Screenplay Jafar Panahi
/ Dir. of Photography Mohamad Reza Jahanpanah
/ Editor Jafar Panahi
/ Producer Jafar Panahi
/ Production Jafar Panahi Film Productions
/ Cast Kamboziya Partovi, Maryam Moghadam, Jafar Panahi, Hadi Saeedi, Azadeh Torabi
/ Contact uConnect, Pascale Ramonda
Jafar Panahi (b. 1960, Mianeh, Iran) studied direction before starting his career as a documentarist and as assistant to Abbas Kiarostami. He made an award-winning short in 1992 entitled The Friend, debuting in features with The White Balloon (1995, Camera d’Or at Cannes). Next came the much-lauded films The Mirror (1997 – Golden Leopard at the 1997 Locarno IFF), The Circle (2000 – Golden Lion at the 2000 Venice IFF), Crimson Gold (2003 – Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at the Cannes IFF), and Offside (2006 – Best Director Silver Bear at the 2006 Berlinale). In 2001 he sat on the Karlovy Vary IFF jury. Kamboziya Partovi (b. 1955, Rasht, Iran) graduated in theater studies and worked as a television screenwriter. Café Transit (2007) was selected to represent Iran for the Academy Award. He works with top directors, mainly as a screenwriter. This is his fifth collaboration with Panahi.
uConnect
, WC2E 8PS, London
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 203 617 1969
E-mail: [email protected]
Pascale Ramonda
91 rue de Ménilmontant, 75020, Paris
France
E-mail: [email protected]
Solmaz Panahi
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