Jafar Panahi

In December 2025, a Tehran court sentenced Panahi in absentia to one year's imprisonment for "propaganda activities against the system", with a travel ban and a ban on participation in certain groups for two years. His lawyer appealed; in June 2026, the conviction was upheld.

State of the evidence

Established by a court

Attribution

Protagonist is the victim

Panahi filmed It Was Just an Accident clandestinely in Iran, without an official permit, with a small crew and methods intended to avoid censorship. According to his accounts and press investigations, crew members were detained or summoned and agents attempted to seize footage. The film, which also depicts women without the compulsory hijab, subsequently won the 2025 Palme d'Or.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

At Cannes in May 2025, Panahi used the visibility of It Was Just an Accident and its Palme d'Or to call for freedom in Iran. France's response praising his "resistance against oppression" prompted an official protest from Tehran and the summoning of the French chargé d'affaires. Conservative Iranian media described the award as political.

State of the evidence

Documented

Legal status — source text

Not applicable

In June 2025, during the war between Israel and Iran, Panahi condemned attacks on his country and called for Israel to be held accountable for its role as aggressor before an international court. In the same text, he denounced decades of repression and misgovernment in Iran and called for the "immediate dissolution" of the Islamic Republic in favour of a democratic government.

State of the evidence

Documented

Legal status — source text

Not applicable

Attribution

Personally implicated

Following a raid on his home and his arrest in 2010 while a film project was being prepared, Panahi was sentenced in December to six years' imprisonment for collusion and propaganda against the system. He was also banned for twenty years from directing or producing films, writing screenplays, speaking to the media and travelling. In July 2022, he was imprisoned to serve this earlier sentence, then released on bail in February 2023 after a hunger strike.

State of the evidence

Established by a court

Attribution

Protagonist is the victim

Despite the filmmaking ban imposed in 2010, Panahi continued to direct or co-direct clandestine works, including This Is Not a Film, Closed Curtain, Taxi and 3 Faces. This Is Not a Film was shot while he was under house arrest and screened at Cannes in 2011, making deliberate defiance of the ban a central artistic and political act.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

On 30 July 2009, Panahi was arrested with director Mahnaz Mohammadi at Behesht-e Zahra cemetery while they were trying to lay flowers at a gathering marking the fortieth day after the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, who had become a symbol of protests against the disputed presidential election.

Attribution

Protagonist is the victim

After The Circle was banned in Iran, Crimson Gold was also denied a domestic release. Panahi recounted that the Culture Ministry had asked him to re-edit his films and stop filming for one year. To make Offside, he submitted a different screenplay under another name to obtain filming authorisation; the resulting film was also banned in Iran.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

While transiting through New York between two festivals, Panahi was detained for approximately twelve hours by US immigration authorities because he lacked a transit visa, then held for several additional hours before being sent back. Angered by his treatment, he cancelled planned US engagements promoting The Circle.

State of the evidence

Documented

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist is the victim