No Bears
With No Bears, the great Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi delivers a typically witty and inventive film full of empathy, but a note of disillusionment is creeping in
Recent Jafar Panahi films have been concerned with boundaries, from testing the restrictions imposed on his artistry by the Iranian authorities, to exploring the slippery line between fact and fiction. In No Bears, he tells parallel stories about a couple trying to escape Iran, brilliantly linking these tales through an ingenious opening shot. One story occurs in a film Panahi is directing remotely from a small village near the Turkish border. The other drama unfolds around the director, as he unwittingly gets drawn into a scandal that animates the whole village, with a young woman attempting to escape her prearranged marriage and elope with her true love.
The film-within-a-film – where the central couple’s quest for a passport seems to mirror the actors’ real lives – is less compelling than the main narrative in which Panahi himself is embroiled. The village elders demand that Panahi hand over an incriminating photograph that he claims he never took, and through this situation No Bears explores the nature of truth and how dangerous misplaced beliefs can be, while also giving Panahi space to critically examine his own role as a filmmaker in the current climate.
No Bears is full of Panahi’s trademark humour, invention and empathy, but a note of exhaustion and disillusionment creeps in as the film moves towards its tragic climax. Panahi’s recent arrest gives this bleak ending an additional layer of resonance, and we can only hope this isn’t the last we’ve heard from one of the vital voices in 21st-century cinema.
Released 11 Nov by Picturehouse Entertainment; certificate PG