“He will continue his work and never stop.” Jafar Panahi with a Golden Angel at Tofifest
The Opening Ceremony of the TOFIFEST Festival is always the moment of awarding Golden Angels, the awards given for artistic insolence. This year, the winners of this award included not only Arkadiusz Jakubik, Marian Dziedziel, or musician Wojciech Waglewski, but also Jafar Panahi, a film director from Iran. His daughter, Solmaz, came to Torun to accept the statuette on his behalf.
Jafar Panahi is an extremely courageous filmmaker, who portrays the absurdities and horrors of life in his native Iran, in an uncompromising way. He takes sides with discriminated minorities, and touches upon issues related to women’s rights, which are commonly violated in Iran. Such of his films as Taxi or The Circle have become both an important voice in the discourse about human rights and film work, which won awards at many prestigious film festivals. Among them are such awards as the Golden Lion won at the Venice International Film Festival, or the Golden Bear awarded at Berlinale.
The film work of Jafar Panahi is a form of social and political manifesto. However, the director has proven his ideological commitment not only by his films. In punishment for touching upon issues that the Iranian authorities find inconvenient, and for supporting the Iranian Green Movement, they placed him under house arrest and prohibited any artistic activity. The majority of is films is now banned in his home country. This way, he has become one of the victims of restricting freedom of the media and freedom of speech. Despite the hardships, Panahi has remained unyielding and true to his ideals. He has managed to make five more films, thus defying the censoring inclinations of the Iranian authorities.
In recognition of all of the aforementioned aspects, the chapter of the Tofifest Festival has decided to award Jafar Panahi a Golden Angel for Artistic Insolence. Can we think of a better manifestation of rebelliousness, than fighting for human rights and disagreement with succumbing to an authoritarian regime? Solmaz Panahi, daughter of the director, accepted the award on his behalf. At first, she was quite confused and shocked to see the ecstatic reaction of the festival audience. However, she could not conceal how proud and touched she was, when expressing the gratitude for appreciating her father’s struggle for freedom. Regardless of any orders the government may impose on my father, he will continue doing his work and never stop, his daughter assured the audience, she assured the audience.
The latest film by Jafar Panahi, 3 Faces, had its pre-release screening last Sunday, in the “Rebels” section of the Tofifest IFF. After the screening, festival audience had an opportunity to meet and talk to Solmaz Panahi. 3 Faces will hit cinemas in Poland on 30th November.
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