The facts are stark.
In 2010, discouraged at one of its native artist’s insistence on pushing boundaries and making Iran look less than ideal on film, the Iranian government slapped writer-director Jafar Panahi with a 20-year ban on moviemaking. He was also confined to within Iran itself, with no travel beyond its borders.
Last July, after the completion of his fifth clandestine feature project in 12 years, Panahi was imprisoned just before Iran’s civil unrest and mass protests boiled over, for a time. The director is to serve up to six years. “No Bears,” that bracing fifth act of creative defiance, is playing now in select theaters.
