The Venice Film Festival is planning to stage a flash mob for the premiere of Jafar Panahi’s No Bears to protest the arrest of the Iranian filmmaker and to show solidarity with other filmmakers and artists from around the world who have faced persecution.
The flash mob will take place on the red carpet before the premiere on September 9 at 16:30, held at the Palazzo del Cinema. Filmmakers, artists and other members of the film community attending the festival will take part.
Panahi was sentenced to six years in prison in June after being arrested for criticising the government alongside fellow Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof.
His film No Bears has been selected for the festival’s main Competition.
Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera told Screen: “We will call on all filmmakers and other personalities to join and we will hold signs asking them to be released. [Panahi] won’t be there [but] one of his actresses will be there, and it will call global attention to their plight. It aims to be a powerful political message that draws much media attention to this issue.”
Filmmakers under attack panel
The festival is also hosting a panel on September 3 at 15:30 CEST at the Palazzo del Casinò Filmmakers Under Attack: Taking Stock, Taking Action.
Panelists include Barbera, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IFFR) director Vanja Kalurdjercic, Turkish producer Nadir Öperli, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) director Orwa Nyrabia, European Film Academy (EFA) president Mike Downey and an as yet unannounced Iranian filmmaker.
The goal of the panel is to provide information on filmmakers who are currently being persecuted and to discuss concrete actions that the international film community could do to help them.
Both initiatives are organised in collaboration with the International Coalition for Filmmakers At Risk (ICFR), which was founded in 2019 by the EFA, IDFA and IFFR.
Venice is also hosting a series of initiatives in support of Ukraine and its artists on September 8, under the banner of ‘Ukrainian Day’.
The festival runs August 31-September 10.
Alina Trabattoni contributed to this report.
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