BERLIN, Feb 12, (RTRS): Iran’s Jafar Panahi has defied a 20-year ban on filmmaking to secretly co-direct “Closed Curtain”, a multi-layered portrayal of how restrictions on his work and movement have brought on depression and even thoughts of suicide. The movie, in competition at the Berlin film festival, has its premiere on Tuesday, but Panahi was not expected on the red carpet despite festival organisers saying the German government had requested he be allowed to travel. His co-director and compatriot Kamboziya Partovi did attend a press conference along with actress Maryam Moghadam, but would not be drawn on what the consequences of making the movie could be for Panahi or others involved.

“Nothing has happened up until now,” he said, speaking through an interpreter. “We do not know what the future holds for us.” Moghadam acknowledged she was taking a risk by acting in a project involving Panahi, a darling of the Western film festival circuit and best known for his 2000 movie “The Circle” and “Offside” released six years later. His socially engaged films about issues such as women’s rights in Iran and support for the political opposition have made him a target of the Iranian authorities.

Banned
In 2010 he was banned from making films for 20 years and sentenced to six years in prison for “propaganda against the system”, although he is now under house arrest. Moghadam, who has dual Swedish and Iranian nationality, told Reuters she would try to continue travelling to Iran, where she had family. “I am not the only one (taking risks),” she said. “Closed Curtain” is the second picture Panahi has made in defiance of the ban, and it remains to be seen whether the 52-year-old faces further punishment for a movie that has drawn major attention in Berlin. “This is Not a Film”, made in 2011, was reportedly smuggled out of the country on a USB stick hidden inside a cake. “Closed Curtain” is set in an empty villa in Iran, presumably beside the Caspian Sea.

A man, played by Partovi, arrives with his dog, and proceeds to draw the curtains and black out the windows, sealing himself off from the world outside and preventing the authorities — real and imagined — from seeing what was happening. When the dog accidentally switches on the television, we see footage of stray dogs being rounded up and killed, explaining why he had to be smuggled in inside a bag and kept indoors. A young man and woman, on the run from the police, burst in and the woman stays, but her existence and that of the man becomes unclear as viewers must decide if they are fictional characters in Panahi’s script or actual people. The layers of reality multiply as Panahi himself arrives, and posters advertising some of his past movies are revealed beneath sheets before being covered up again. In the allegory of Panahi’s life under house arrest and inability to work freely, we see him walking into the sea at one point, a reference to taking his own life.

Suicide
“He was not constantly thinking about suicide, no, because then he wouldn’t have been able to make the film,” Partovi said. “But if I imagine myself unable to work and just sitting at home, then I am sure I would start to think about suicide.” According to Partovi, “Closed Curtain” was made out of a desire to express oneself, even though it was unlikely to be seen by people inside Iran. “It’s difficult to work, but not being able to work is even more difficult, and especially when you are at the height of your career. You become depressed, and I believe this is shown in the film and it comes through.”

The mood is one of frustration, fear and anger, as young people are rounded up for having parties and drinking alcohol. “She is a young woman like many other women in my country,” Moghadam said of her character Melika. “She is a symbol of many other young women who struggle,” added the actress, who was wearing a hat to cover her hair. She said her character represented “the dark side of his (Panahi’s) mind ... that part that doesn’t hope any more and wants to give up.” The director, who has picked up a clutch of prizes at major international festivals for socially critical movies that are outlawed in Iran, has been feted abroad as one of the most original voices of the Iranian new wave.

Though he was prevented from coming to present the film in Berlin, Panahi appears on screen during the second half of the picture and it remains unclear whether the two fugitives are not just a figment of his imagination as the action moves from reality to fiction and back again. Partovi, who also plays the role of the man with the dog, said Panahi had been deeply depressed due to the official restrictions when they started working on the project, which he said was aimed at “bridging this hard period”. “It’s difficult to work but not being able to work is even more difficult, particularly at the height of your career,” he said. Partovi said it was unclear what consequences the new picture, which got a mixed reception in Berlin, would have for them in Iran.

“Nothing has happened until now but we don’t know what the future has in store for us,” he said. Maryam Moghadam, the lead actress, said her character represented Panahi’s desperation. “She’s the dark side, the hopelessness of every person and specifically the director in the movie,” she said. “The dark side of his mind, the hopeless power — that part that doesn’t hope any more and wants to give up.” Cannes, Berlin and Venice invited him to sit on their juries in 2010 and 2011 but because he was barred from leaving the country, organisers left a symbolic empty chair for him to remind film-goers of his plight. Panahi, who was born in 1960, was awarded in December the prestigious Sakharov human rights prize by the European Parliament — a move that enraged Iran and further strained relations with the Islamic republic.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman on Monday said Berlin had appealed to Tehran to allow Panahi to attend the festival and protesters outside the Berlinale cinema held up cardboard cutouts of the director demanding he be free to travel. Panahi released a statement with the press materials for the film, saying the story served as a metaphor for his personal plight. “‘Closed Curtain’ uses shifting genres and stories within stories to highlight why film-making is a necessity in a film-maker’s life: it is the imperative need to show the reality of the world we live in,” he said. “Closed Curtain” is one of 19 films vying for the Berlin’s Golden Bear top prize to be awarded Saturday. A gripping Iranian families drama, “A Separation” by Asghar Farhadi, won the Golden Bear in 2011 at a festival that has long spotlighted the country’s embattled directors.