Jafar Panahi: Filmmaker in Focus

The career of Iranian filmmaker and special MIFF guest, Jafar Panahi, sits at the heart of the festival’s Homelands Now programme and presents a rare opportunity to view the work of one of the world’s most important living filmmakers. Born in Mianeh, Iran, in 1960, Jafar Panahi is one of the most influential and internationally renowned filmmakers of Iranian post-revolutionary cinema. His relationship with MIFF 2003 guest, Abbas Kiarostami, who wrote Panahi’s Crimson Gold (2003) and his debut feature, The White Balloon (1995), commenced when Panahi served as assistant director on Kiarostami’s Through the Olive Trees (1994). His politically and socially contentious works have earned him numerous awards (and difficulties in his native Iran and, even more recently, in the US), including a Silver Bear at Berlin this year for Offside (2006).

Offside