Kolkata cinema fraternity joins global demand for Panahi’s release

KOLKATA: Reports of the arrest of Iranian director Jafar Panahi has elicited global outrage among the cine fraternity, calling for his immediate release. Film lovers here, in awe of Panahi’s undaunted spirit and his ability to capture ordinary lives through a remarkable prism, also joined the demand. According to Iranian media, filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-e Ahmad were arrested over social media posts concerning the collapse of a 10-storey building in the city of Abadan in Iran in May that killed more than 40 people. Panahi had reportedly gone to the prison to ask prosecutors about Rasoulof when he was also arrested. Kolkata’s Sreemoyee Singh, who directed a short film, ‘Toward Happy Alleys/Be Kucheye Khoshbakht’, had first met Panahi when she went to Tehran to work on “The Exiled Filmmaker in Post-Revolution Iran”. She had filmed him inside his car as he drove around Tehran. Her short film also had shots of Panahi too. “My PhD thesis had a chapter on Rasoulof and I had interacted with him online. Both Rasoulof and Panahi’s situations are very similar. My friends in Iran say the new wave of oppression there has come down heavily on artists and women. The hijab restrictions have increased. The situation has taken a very hopeless turn but I sincerely hope that the situation changes,” Singh said. Panahi’s films have drawn huge audiences at the Kolkata International Film Festival. Director Supriyo Sen is putting his weight behind calls for his immediate release. Remembering his encounter with Panahi in Kolkata, Sen described him as a “contemporary master”. “Be it political or emotional, he is never scared of telling stories. I loved his ‘The White Balloon’, ‘The Circle’, ‘The Mirror’ and ‘Offside’. Panahi has a penchant for exploring ordinary lives in an extraordinary way. I had met him very briefly in Kolkata and remember his humility and eagerness to know what is happening in the Indian independent film scene and why Indians are not exploring their potential to the fullest,” said Sen, who wants the end of “harassment for all creative people”. “It is not possible to chain someone like Panahi. He made a masterpiece even while being under house arrest,” he added.Director Goutam Ghose too has lent his voice to the demands for his release. “He made ‘This is not a film’ under house arrest. I was so impressed by his cinematic expression of depicting freedom of speech. I chaired the jury at the Dubai International Festival where the film received the top award,” he said. "I strongly condemn the arrest of Jafar Panahi and other filmmakers and artists of Iran and demand their immediate release,” said Premendra Mazumder, vice president, Federation of Film Societies of India.Kolkata’s student community, too, is reacting. Soon after the news of arrest broke, Jadavpur University’s student Soumalya Chatterjee put up a post on Facebook. “We strongly condemn the arrest of Jafar Panahi along with two other directors in Iran. History tells us that this is not a new event in Iran. The country is a big example of what happens when a nation is governed by fundamentalists. Students of JU have always raised their voice against the power of fundamentalism and any attempts to gag freedom of speech. We have been speaking for the rights of artists. We want immediate release of those whose creative freedom is getting curbed this way,” wrote the 22-year-old MA first-year student at JU’s comparative literature department.