Official US Trailer for Jafar Panahi’s Award-Winning Film ‘No Bears’

Official US Trailer for Jafar Panahi’s Award-Winning Film ‘No Bears’

by Alex Billington
December 20, 2022
Source: YouTube

“This picture has become a big concern. It’s paralyzing all of us.” Janus Films has debuted the US trailer for the film No Bears, the latest acclaimed work by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. He was imprisoned earlier this year simply for going to support another filmmaker friend who was wrongly imprisoned, all because they dare to speak their minds and make films about the world they live in. No Bears premiered at the 2022 Venice and Toronto and New York Film Festivals, with a very limited release coming over the next month. Panahi’s new film No Bears portrays two parallel love stories. In both, the lovers are troubled by hidden, inevitable obstacles, the force of superstition, and the mechanics of power. Panahi plays himself, trying to make a film across the border in Turkey, while getting into trouble with the locals in his own town. Also starring Naser Hashemi, Vahid Mobaseri, Bakhtiyar Panjei, Mina Kavani, & Reza Heydari. This is an important film about what it’s like to be an oppressed filmmaker in Iran – keep an eye out for it.

Here’s the official US trailer (+ poster) for Jafar Panahi’s No Bears, direct from YouTube:

One of the world’s great cinematic artists, Jafar Panahi has been carefully crafting self-reflexive works about artistic, personal, and political freedom for three decades, despite his oppression at the hands of the Iranian government. Now, as the international film community vehemently denounces his summer 2022 arrest and continued imprisonment for his vocal support of a fellow artist’s independence, Panahi has gifted us all with a new virtuosic sleight-of-hand. In No Bears, as in many of his recent titles, Panahi plays a fictionalized version of himself, in this case relocated to a rural border town to remotely direct a film in nearby Turkey – the story of which comes to sharply mirror events that begin to occur around him. As he struggles to complete his film, Panahi finds himself thrust in the middle of a local scandal, confronting the pulls of tradition & progress, city & country, belief & evidence, and a universal desire to reject oppression.

No Bears, also known as خرس نیست in Persian, is both written and directed by iconic Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, director of many films including The Circle, The Mirror, Crimson Gold, Offside, Closed Curtain, Taxi Tehran, and 3 Faces (at Cannes ’18) most recently. Produced by Jafar Panahi, and executive produced by Nader Saeivar. This initially premiered at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, and New York Film Festivals. Janus Films will debut Jafar Panahi’s new film No Bears in select US theaters (NY only) starting December 23rd, 2022, then opening in LA and more cities in early 2023. Visit the official site.

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