An Iranian court has upheld a conviction against “It Was Just an Accident” director Jafar Panahi for “propaganda against the regime,” as the Palme D’Or winner faces a one-year prison sentence and travel ban.
Panahi’s lawyer Mostafa Nili announced the decision by the court to reject the director’s appeal on Sunday. The filmmaker does not face immediate incarceration, as he has 20 days to make another appeal to the Tehran Provincial Court of Appeal.
Panahi, one of the most internationally recognized Iranian filmmakers, has had multiple run-ins with his country’s authorities, having first been banned from making films by the Tehran courts in 2010 in a decision that drew support for Panahi from Hollywood figures like Sean Penn and Martin Scorsese.
Panahi’s decision to continue making films in secret in spite of that ruling only further grew his international profile, most notably his 2011 documentary “This Is Not a Film,” which recounted Panahi’s legal battles and was smuggled out of Iran to the Cannes Film Festival.
More recently, Panahi served seven months in prison following his involvement in a protest with other Iranian filmmakers. But after a hunger strike and successful appeal, he was released and allowed to travel to Cannes to premiere “It Was Just an Accident,” an acclaimed drama in which a man encounters someone he believes tortured him when he was a political prisoner.
After incapacitating the suspected torturer, the man gathers other former prisoners, who debate whether they should exact murderous revenge or let him go. Like his previous films, “It Was Just an Accident” was filmed in secret.
Panahi co-wrote the film with Shadmehr Rastin, Nader Saeivar and Mehdi Mahmoudian, the latter of whom Panahi met while in prison. The four received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay for “It Was Just an Accident,” which also was nominated for Best International Feature. Panahi returned to Iran on March 30 following the Oscars ceremony and has been in the country since.
