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No Bears
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Wikipedia article
{{Infobox film
| name = No Bears
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| native_name =
| director = Jafar Panahi
| writer = Jafar Panahi
| producer = Jafar Panahi
| starring =
| cinematography =
| editing = Amir Etminan
| music =
| studio =
| distributor = Celluloid Dreams
| released =
| runtime = 107 minutes:4
| country = Iran
| language =
| budget =
| gross =
}}
'No Bears' (, ) is a 2022 Iranian drama film written, directed and produced by Jafar Panahi. The film was shot secretly in Iran, stars Panahi, , Vahid Mobasri, Bakhtiar Panjei and Mina Khosravani and wrapped production in May 2022. It won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival in September 2022. It will be distributed by Celluloid Dreams.
'No Bears' premiered at the 79th Venice Film Festival in competition for the Golden Lion, without the presence of the director, who has been arrested and sentenced to 6 years prison in Iran, prior to the film's release.
Premise
The film portrays "two parallel love stories in which the lovers struggle with hidden and unavoidable obstacles, the force of superstitions and the mechanics of power".
Cast
Production
, writer, director and producer of 'No Bears', has been arrested and sentenced to 6 years in prison prior to the film's release in July 2022.
'No Bears' is the ninth feature film directed by Jafar Panahi and the first film after '3 Faces' (2018). This filmmaker had made two short films in between. In addition to writing, directing and producing 'No Bears', Panahi also stars in the film with , Vahid Mobasri, Bakhtiar Panjei, Mina Khosravani, and others. Panahi is said to have received more freedom to produce the film after the end of the curfew imposed in 2022, due to the spread of Covid-19 in Iran.
Production wrapped in May 2022, and the rights were traded shortly after at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival by Paris-based Celluloid Dreams, which had undertaken the same task for the director's previous works.
Director's Arrest
On July 11, 2022, Panahi has been arrested and sentenced to six years in Evin prison on the charges of "propaganda against the regime". According to himself, after the arrest of his two colleagues, Mohammad Rasoulof and , he had expressed solidarity along with several hundred other filmmakers over the Internet; they are said to have demonstrated online against the police brutality in Iran.
After 'No Bears' was selected for the Golden Lion competition of the Venice Film Festival, the Ministry of Culture of the Islamic Republic of Iran called the film a "political game [rather than a] movie [that] does not have a production license". On July 28, 2022, the issued an official statement congratulating the selected directors for the nomination, and moreover demanding from the Iranian government, to consider "the request of 19 cinema guilds, and hundreds of cinematographers [to] examine the status of these filmmakers, and their release as soon as possible".
It is reported that the 79th Venice Film Festival has been significantly affected by the arrest and trial of Panahi; Alberto Barbera, the artistic director of the said festival, after announcing the list of films in a media event, demanded the release of directors Panahi, Rasoulov and Al-Ahmad. He later called on "all filmmakers and other personalities" to join a flash mob that will take place on the red carpet before the premiere on September 9 at 16:30 at the Palazzo del Cinema, to protest Panahi's arrest and to show solidarity with others from around the world who have faced persecution in the same way.
Release
'No Bears' had its world premiere in-competition at the 79th Venice International Film Festival for the Golden Lion, on 9 September 2022. Another screening of the film is scheduled for the same month at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.
Reception
Accolades
Panahi competed for the Golden Lion, the main prize of the Venice Film Festival for the second time; he first received this award for his movie 'The Circle' (2000). 'No Bears' won the Special Jury Prize with actors Mina Khosravani and Reza Heydari accepting the award in Panahi's absence.See also
* 'The Year of the Everlasting Storm'
References
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