{"id":8400,"date":"2025-05-25T03:01:21","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T03:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=8400"},"modified":"2025-05-25T03:01:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T03:01:21","slug":"dissident-iranian-filmmaker-panahi-wins-cannes-top-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=8400","title":{"rendered":"Dissident Iranian filmmaker Panahi wins Cannes top prize"},"content":{"rendered":"
Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi won the Palme d’Or top prize at the Cannes film festival on Saturday, using his acceptance speech to urge his country to unite for “freedom”.<\/p>\n

The latest film from the 64-year-old, “It Was Just an Accident”, tells the tale of five ordinary Iranians confronting a man they believed tortured them in jail.<\/p>\n

The core of the provocative and wry drama examines the moral dilemma faced by people if they are given an opportunity to take revenge on their oppressors.<\/p>\n

Panahi, who was banned from making films in 2010 and has been imprisoned twice, used his own experiences in jail to write the screenplay.<\/p>\n

“Let’s set aside all problems, all differences. What matters most right now is our country and the freedom of our country,” he told the VIP-studded audience on the French Riviera.<\/p>\n

The leading light in the Iranian New Wave cinema movement has vowed to return to Tehran after the Cannes Festival, despite the risks of prosecution.<\/p>\n

When asked on Saturday evening if he was worried about flying home, he replied: “Not at all. Tomorrow we are leaving.”<\/p>\n

Iran was shaken by the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests in 2022 sparked by after the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was arrested for allegedly flouting dress rules for women.<\/p>\n

The demonstrations were quashed in a crackdown that saw thousands detained, according to the United Nations, and hundreds shot dead by security forces, according to activists.<\/p>\n

Among the other Cannes awards, Brazil’s Wagner Moura \u2014\u00a0best known for playing Pablo Escobar in “Narcos” \u2014\u00a0picked up the best actor award for his performance in police thriller “The Secret Agent”.<\/p>\n

Its director, Kleber Mendonca Filho, also won the best director prize, making it a good evening for Brazil.<\/p>\n

France’s Nadia Melliti continued her fairytale fortnight in Cannes by clinching the gong for best actress.<\/p>\n

Melliti, who had never appeared in a film before, plays a 17-year-old Muslim girl struggling with her homosexuality in Hafsia Herzi’s “The Little Sister”.<\/p>\n

The keen football player of Algerian descent was spotted by a casting agent near a shopping mall in central Paris. “Sentimental Value” by Norway’s Joachim Trier, a moving family drama given a 19-minute standing ovation on Thursday, picked up the second prize Grand Prix.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi won the Palme d’Or top prize at the Cannes film festival on Saturday, using his acceptance speech to urge his country to unite for “freedom”. The latest film from the 64-year-old, “It Was Just an Accident”, tells the tale of five ordinary Iranians confronting a man they believed tortured them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}