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Movies of necessity

Book review written by Aleksander Huser
3 women (See rokh)
Regissør: Jafar Panahi
(Iran )

PROHIBITION PROHIBITION: The Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi continues to make films with ever-increasing scope for action, despite the fact that he has been banned from both work and travel.

Da Jafar Panahi feature film The white balloon won the award for best debut film – Caméra d'Or – at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995, it was the first time an Iranian film was awarded one of the festival's most important awards. Since then, Panahi has been among the foremost filmmakers in Iran – which has long characterized itself as a strong film nation.

This is despite the fact that Iranian film has been subject to extensive state censorship ever since before the revolution in 1979. Panahi has been arrested several times, and in 2010 was sentenced to an occupational ban for the entire 20 year – as well as an outlaw ban.

The film is strongly characterized by being made out of necessity – and hardly without personal risk to those involved.

However, the ban has not stopped him from making films, which he gets smuggled out of the country and shown at the world's biggest and most prestigious festivals. The premieres 3 kvinner (with international title 3 Faces) is the director's fourth feature film since he was placed under a professional ban. These also include the documentary This is Not a Movie – a title that ironically comments on the punishment – and Taxi Tehran, who won the main prize Gullbjørnen. . .

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Aleksander Huser
Huser is a regular film critic in Ny Tid.

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