External collaborations, filmmakers say, are driven by creative, technical and financial pressures, forcing directors like Farhadi and Mohsen Makhmalbaf to work outside Iran.

“Some films unsettled the powers back home. For instance, the government wanted the Iranian Film Museum to remove all of Makhmalbaf’s films after he made ‘The Gardener’. His crime: portraying the Bahai faith (taboo for hardliners) and travelling to Israel for the film,” says a budding Iranian filmmaker, who prefers not to be named.

Notably, this year’s IFFK International Competition jury chairman, Mohammad Rasoulof, faced a similar ordeal. He received an eight-year jail sentence along with flogging, a fine and confiscation of property for making ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’, based on the 2022 protests in Iran.
Rasoulof fled Iran — 28 days on foot before finding refuge in Germany, where he had lived earlier. “Later, he walked the red carpet at Cannes, where a special award awaited him. When the going gets tough, the tough get going,” the young filmmaker adds.  

“Similarly, Panahi’s ‘Taxi’ won the Golden Bear at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival. Then, of course, there are filmmakers like Majidi, who remain within the curbs. His 2015 epic ‘Muhammad: The Messenger of God’ adhered to religious norms.”