No Bears(Khers nist)

The conflation of modern authority and archaic superstition, the town-country divide, the oppressiveness of fear and the absurdity of dogma – these recurrent themes in Panahi’s oeuvre culminate flawlessly in this piercingly self-aware portrait. Playing a version of himself, a dissident filmmaker who directs a film remotely near the border with Turkey, Panahi taps into the film-within-a-film trope to reflect on theocratic cruelty and tyranny through two parallel love stories that eerily mirror each other. A queasy parallel with his own life, this complex meta-fiction confirms the subversive power of filmmaking – to challenge limits, confront the truth, and explore the paradoxes of cinema itself.

Venice Film Festival: Special Jury Prize