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Iranian director is cheerful at home after winning the best prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Jafar Panahi touched on Tehran’s International Airport on Monday, two days after his victory for the Palm d’OR thriller, it was just a random.
Panahi has been imprisoned repeatedly in Iran, recently because of the protest against the detention of films criticizing authorities. It was his first visit to Cannes of 15 years, where his films were shown in his absence due to a ban on travel.
His winning film depicts torture in Iranian prisons and lit back and forth between French and Iranian officials.
The famous director, who now holds awards from the three major film festivals in Europe, was seen to grin and hold a bouquet of flowers as he hugged his friends.
Among the crowd was the associate of Iranian film director Medi Dadari, who shared footage from the moment on Instagram, calling the return of panachi “Creating History.”
One man was heard screaming “Woman, Life, Freedom” while Panahi passed through the airport, according to Agance France-Presse. The phrase was the slogan for protests that broke out in Iran after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa ammins in police arrest in 2022.
In his speech to admit to Cannes Panahi, he said, “The most important thing now is our country and the freedom of our country” and called on the Iranians to “join forces.”
“No one should dare to tell us what clothes we should wear, what we should do or what we should not do,” he said.
The movie’s victory has generated a diplomatic order between French and Iranian employeesAfter the French Foreign Minister Jean-Nol Baro called him a “gesture of resistance to the oppression of the Iranian regime” in the post of X.
Irna, Iran’s state media, said a French diplomat was summoned to Tehran so that he could formally protest against comments as “offensive and unfounded.”
Returning to Tehran, he executes a bet that Panahi made as he spoke to reporters in Cannes.
“As soon as I finish my work here, I will come back,” he said, adding “I will wonder what my next movie will be like.”