Exiled Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof cited Jafar Panahi’s latest prison sentence as evidence of continued pressure on Iranian cinema during a Tokyo International Film Festival press conference. Rasoulof and Japanese filmmaker O Mipo are this year’s recipients of the Kurosawa Akira Award.

“Of course, Iranian cinema continues to face repression, and my friends and colleagues remain under enormous pressure,” Rasoulof said in Persian. He said Panahi had recently received another sentence: five additional years in prison and the confiscation of his property. Panahi won the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year, Rasoulof added.

Rasoulof said many Iranian filmmakers were choosing to confront those in power by telling their stories directly, rather than relying on metaphor to avoid repression. He described making a similar change after his 2010 arrest while working on a film, which was followed by a five-year sentence. While in a cell, he questioned why anyone should be imprisoned for making a film and reconsidered his use of allegory, a technique he connected to classical Persian poetry.

“I thought I was using metaphor to run away from the regime, but I thought I wouldn’t do it anymore,” he said. “I don’t need to run away anymore, so then I decided to tell things directly.”

The award’s selection committee, chaired by Yamada Yoji, recognized Rasoulof’s films about state repression and human rights. It cited “There Is No Evil” and “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” noting their portrayal of people enforcing oppression as ordinary citizens, as well as Rasoulof’s determination to keep working despite pressure.

Rasoulof said he grew up watching Akira Kurosawa’s “Red Beard” on Iranian state television, but that “Dersu Uzala” is the director’s film he now feels closest to. He said he watches it when he feels hopeless or depressed because it helps him find hope.

The committee also praised O for portraying people on society’s margins without moral judgment, pointing to her 2006 debut, “The Sakai’s Happiness,” and her work with children in “Being Good,” “Living in Two Worlds” and “How Dare You?”

O said she had struggled to balance filmmaking and raising children after her first son was born in 2015. After her second son arrived in 2020, she thought her career might be over. A comment by actress Ando Sakura at the 2023 Japan Academy Film Prize ceremony—that filmmaking and child-rearing could not be done together—changed her outlook. O said she felt both struck by the remark and relieved, and later returned to feature filmmaking after a nine-year gap.

She said she wants the film industry to allow crew members to put their personal lives first, including caring for children or sick relatives. For “How Dare You?” she held weekend workshops with groups of children rather than formal auditions and cast mostly first-time performers. Although viewers have asked whether the film was made with hidden cameras or without a script, O said it had a full screenplay, written with Takada Ryo, and extensive rehearsals. The children’s own phrasing shaped the dialogue during the process.

O said her first Kurosawa film was “Rashomon,” which she saw as a film student. She later trained under the late Obayashi Nobuhiko and said she shares Kurosawa’s belief in cinema’s power to bring peace to the world.

Sources: Variety.