Jafar Panahi turned 65 on this 11 July. For over a decade, the acclaimed Iranian filmmaker has continued making bold, uncompromising films; despite being banned, censored, and even imprisoned.

Imagine being banned from doing the thing you love doing most in the world, under the threat of prison. Now imagine doing it anyway. That’s exactly what the revolutionary Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has done for over a decade.

Panahi began his journey in cinema by creating short films and working closely with acclaimed director Abbas Kiarostami as an assistant.

Inspired by a story of a young Luis Buñuel once contacting successful film director Jean Epstein to ask for a job in filmmaking, Panahi left a message on Kiarostami’s answering machine saying that he loved his films and asking for a job on his next film. Kiarostami hired Panahi as his assistant director for the film Through the Olive Trees.

His first feature film, The White Balloon (1995), was a groundbreaking success. It won the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, making history as the first Iranian film to earn that honor.

From that point forward, Panahi became a key figure in the Iranian New Wave, known for his unflinching portrayals of life under authoritarian constraints. His films often delve into themes of social injustice, gender inequality, political repression, and the struggles faced by marginalized people in Iranian society.

In 2000, Panahi made The Circle, a searing portrayal of the restrictions imposed on women in Iran. The film was banned in his home country but won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

His 2003 film, Crimson Gold, written by Kiarostami, tackled class disparity and social humiliation through the story of a pizza delivery man, earning the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes.

In 2006, Jafar Panahi made Offside, a powerful and satirical film about a group of young Iranian girls who disguise themselves as boys to sneak into Tehran’s Azadi Stadium and watch a World Cup qualifying match between Iran and Bahrain. The idea was inspired by a personal incident; Panahi’s own daughter was once denied entry to a stadium but managed to sneak in anyway.

Knowing the film would be controversial, Panahi submitted a fake script to Iranian authorities, claiming it was about young men attending a football match.

Despite warnings from the Ministry of Guidance that no screening license would be granted unless he re-edited his earlier films, Panahi went ahead. He shot the film during the actual match using digital video to remain inconspicuous in the crowd, even crediting his assistant director as the official director to avoid attention. But a newspaper leak exposed his role, and authorities tried to shut production down just before the final scene was shot.

Panahi casted non-professional actresses, mostly university students and passionate football fans, to play the lead roles. Offside premiered at the 2006 Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize. Though it was banned in Iran like many of his other films, bootleg copies spread rapidly, and Panahi believes it’s “probably the one that people have seen the most” in the country.

“Most of my films talk about restrictions imposed on human beings, and here women are more restricted than men. So I used soccer as a means to show the restrictions,” Director Panahi told Al Jazeera.

The film’s impact was so strong that a feminist protest group called the White Scarf Girls began appearing at matches holding banners that read: “We don’t want to be Offside.”

Despite international acclaim, Panahi’s work has faced consistent censorship at home. In 2010, following his vocal support for the Green Movement and criticism of the government, he was arrested. The authorities sentenced him to six years in prison and issued a 20-year ban from directing films, writing scripts, traveling abroad, or speaking to the media.

But Panahi refused to be silenced. In a bold act of defiance, he made This Is Not a Film (2011), which blurs the lines between documentary and fiction.

Shot largely within the confines of his Tehran apartment using a handheld camera and an iPhone, the film captures Panahi reflecting on his creative paralysis, reading from an unfinished screenplay, and engaging in quiet yet powerful acts of resistance.

The film is a striking commentary on censorship, not only in its content but also in its very existence. In a now-legendary move, This Is Not a Film was smuggled out of Iran on a USB stick hidden inside a cake to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival. The film’s title becomes an ironic protest; this might not be a “film” in the traditional sense, but it is cinema in its rawest, most urgent form.

In Closed Curtain (2013), made while under house arrest, Panahi again used confined space as a canvas. Co-directed with Kambuzia Partovi, it was filmed behind blackout curtains at his villa and explored themes of despair, artistic isolation, and surveillance. The film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and won the Silver Bear for Best Script.

In Taxi (2015), Panahi takes on the role of a cab driver in Tehran, using a dashboard camera to document encounters with his passengers. Witty and reflective, the film ends with a memorable scene where his niece debates what makes a film “distributable.” Taxi won the Golden Bear at the 2015 Berlin International Film Festival.

In 3 Faces (2018), Panahi and actress Behnaz Jafari travel to a remote village to investigate the possible suicide of a young girl. The film, a layered blend of reality and fiction, comments on superstition, tradition, and women’s rights in rural Iran. It premiered at Cannes and won Best Screenplay.

In No Bears (2022), Panahi once again blurred the lines of reality, portraying a fictionalized version of himself as a filmmaker stuck near the Turkish border while remotely directing a film. The story intertwines with tales of forbidden love, state violence, and paranoia. It won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.

Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident made history at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival by winning the prestigious Palme d’Or. The film marks a powerful return for the Iranian director, who had been silenced for years due to imprisonment and a travel ban.

Drawing from personal and political trauma, the story follows a group of torture survivors who abduct a man they believe to be their former interrogator.

What begins as a tense act of revenge unfolds into a gripping moral puzzle, blurring lines between justice, vengeance, and mistaken identity.

Praised by jury president Juliette Binoche for its emotional depth and daring political commentary, the film stunned audiences with its bold storytelling and layered performances.

Despite being barred from leaving Iran, Panahi directed the film remotely, working with a trusted crew and encrypted communications.

Panahi’s filmmaking style is often described as an Iranian form of neorealism; rooted in everyday life, yet emotionally profound. In his own words, he aims to capture “humanitarian aspects of things” and present “humanitarian events interpreted in a poetic and artistic way.” His work blends documentary-like immediacy with carefully crafted form. Unlike his mentor Abbas Kiarostami, Panahi’s critique of society is more direct.

At the heart of his cinema is empathy. “In all of my films, you never see an evil character, male or female. I believe everyone is a good person,” he said in an interview with World Socialist Web Site, conducted around the release of The Circle.

He has said a philosophy that gives his work both moral depth and quiet resistance. Jafar Panahi continues making films not just as act of art, but as act of courage.