Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi has reportedly left Iran for the first time since 2009 after his travel ban was lifted, according to his wife Tahereh Saeedi.
A post by Saeedi on Instagram appeared to show her and Panahi at an undisclosed airport with a stack of suitcases. The caption read: “After 14 years, Jafar’s ban was cancelled and finally we are going to travel together for a few days.”
Observers on social media speculate that he is in France, based on the background of the image.
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Panahi is one of Iran’s best-known filmmakers. His 1995 film The White Balloon won the Camera d’Or at Cannes in 1995. He won the Golden Leopard at Locarno for The Mirror in 1997, then the Golden Lion at Venice for The Circle in 2000.Taxi won the Golden Bear at the 2015 Berlinale.
Panahi’s travel ban was laid down by the Iranian government in 2009 after he attended the funeral of a student killed during the country’s Green Revolution, later attempting to make a film themed around the uprising.
The following year, Panahi’s request to travel to the Berlinale – where he had been invited to sit on a panel about Iranian cinema – was denied and he was later arrested and given a six-year suspended prison sentence and 20-year ban on travel and filmmaking for criticising the Iranian government.
He served two months in prison before being granted a conditional release that was revocable.
Despite the ban, he continued to make features such as This Is Not A Film, which was smuggled out of the country and screened at Cannes in 2011, with Panahi awarded the Carrosse d’Or. He more recently made drama No Bears, which played in Competition at last year’s Venice and won a special jury prize.
Panahi was arrested in Tehran in July 2022 and ordered to serve the six-year sentence, after being seized by authorities after going to the prosecutors’ office with colleagues and lawyers to inquire about the earlier arrest of Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof.
In September, the Woman Life Freedom protests took place in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year Kurdish Iranian woman, after being taken into custody for not wearing her hijab correctly.
Panahi was “temporarily” released on February 16, three days after he went on hunger strike in protest at his arrest.
There has been no further comment from Panahi or his representatives following his departure from Iran.
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