Thursday 27 May 2010

Jafar Panahi released

I've written before here about the Iranian director Jafar Panahi, and the fact that he was arrested by the Iranian authorities. Now he seems to have been released, after three months in prison. Here's a link to an article about it in the New York Times.

I've actually met Panahi once, a couple of years ago when he was visiting Sweden. He expressed his surprise that anybody in such an exotic country would be interested in Iranian films, and his films. But they're very good, so why shouldn't we like them? From The White Balloon (Badkonake sefid 1995) to Offside (2006), with perhaps The Circle (Dayereh 2000) being the most famous here.

It's good he has been released, but he should never have been arrested in the first place, and so many others are still looked up.