'One's country is the best place to live, no matter what problems, what difficulties.'
'My country is where I can breathe, where I can find the reason to live, and where I can find the strength to create.'
Earlier this week, Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi was in New York City where his latest film, It Was Just an Accident -- the winner of this year's Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival -- won three Gotham Awards.
It Was Just an Accident has been submitted by France for the Best International Film Oscar race.
The same day, a court in Iran sentenced Panahi, whose works have included The White Balloon (1995) The Circle (2000) and Offside (2006), to one year imprisonment and two years ban on leaving the country. He was charged with creating propaganda against the Iranian regime.
Panahi is used to imprisonment, having served two jail terms in Iran and is currently banned from making films. But this does not deter the Iranian master.
It Was Just an Accident was secretly made in Iran.
"I have been working night and day on this Oscar campaign for over three months now," Panahi said on Thursday during a conversation at the 22nd Marrakech International Film Festival.
"This sentence happened in the middle of this process. But I will finish this campaign and go back to Iran as soon as possible.
"I know that the films I have made don't please the (Iranian) government," he added in response to a question posed by a member of the audience. "But that's not a reason for me not to go back to my country. I will go back.
"I have only one passport," the 65-year-old filmmaker said.
"This is the passport of my country, and I wish to keep it."
During the difficult years in jail and not being allowed to make films, Panahi said he was given the opportunity to leave Iran and become a citizen of another country.
"But I never considered leaving my country and being a refugee elsewhere," he said.
Many Iranian filmmakers, including Panahi's friend Mohammad Rasoulof, Mohsen Makhmalbaf and the actress Golshifteh Farahani now live in exile in Europe.
Even Panahi's mentor, the late filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, lived in exile for many years, making films in France and Japan.
But Panahi's passion and love for his country was clear from these words.
"One's country is the best place to live, no matter what problems, what difficulties. My country is where I can breathe, where I can find the reason to live, and where I can find the strength to create," he said.
Panahi has had a long history of political differences with the Iranian authorities.
In 2010, he was arrested when he set out to make a documentary on the Green Movement, the protests after then president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election.
He was banned from making films for 20 years and also from traveling outside Iran. He was later placed under house arrest -- a tough period, but he managed to make two experimental films, This Is Not A Film (2011) and Closed Curtains (2013).
"I was in a very difficult state at that time," he said.
Once he was allowed to move around within Iran, he decided to become a taxi driver and shoot conversations with his passengers using a digital camera.
That delightful film, Taxi (2015) featured a range of passengers, including a man who sold pirated DVDs of Hollywood films and Panahi's talkative young niece. Taxi won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale and Panahi's niece received the award on his behalf.
In December 2022, Panahi visited the prosecutor's office to check on the condition of his jailed friend Rasoulof. There, the authorities suddenly arrested Panahi.
In February 2023, Panahi went on a hunger strike and was released after 48 hours.
With all the hardships he has faced, Panahi still has hope.
"The problems that Iran is facing these days are temporary, just like the problems that any society has faced or will face," Panahi said during the conversation in Marrakech.
"It can be Iran, it can be Morocco, it can be any other country.
"I am sure this is the reason why audiences throughout the world can relate to my last film," he said about the themes of forgiveness and redemption in It Was Just an Accident.
"It reminds them of things that they have gone through or they think they might go through some day. So we are all in the same boat."
Panahi addressed the large number of film students who were in the audience.
"There are two kinds of filmmakers in the world," he told them.
"Those who run after the audience, who are extremely sensitive to know the needs, the taste, the expectations of the audience to attract them to the films they make. This makes up 95 percent of the filmmakers in the world.
"And there are the 5 percent who think, 'I don't care about the audience's taste. I make my own films. I make the films and say what I want to say, and then the audience must come and find me'."
He warned that there is a price to pay if you chose to be a part of the latter group. It can be economical as in the western countries or political such as in Iran.
"I am aware of it," he added. "And I have made this choice."
Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff