A DIRECTOR WHO WON'T LOOK AWAY

As a child born in a working-class neighborhood in south Tehran, future director Jafar Panahi would save all the pocket change his father gave him so he could go to the movies. Yet it was a role in front of the camera that positioned him to become one of the most acclaimed and fearless filmmakers in the world.

- CARLOS AGUILAR

PANAHI'S focus on exposing social themes in Iran has resulted in jail sentences and severe restrictions on his ability to make movies.

A self-described “chunky kid” growing up in pre-Islamic Revolution times, Panahi was cast due to his build in a short film produced by Iran’s Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults. The educational piece required two children, one heavyset and one thin. While shooting his scenes at a local library, he was enticed by the camera.

“Unfortunately, there was a very stingy cameraman who would not let me get behind the camera,” Panahi says via an interpreter at a hotel in Santa Monica. “And this became my biggest wish, to see the world through the camera.”

Panahi, 65, has since had plenty of opportunities to fulfill his childhood dream, even if it has jeopardized his freedoms due to Iran's theocratic regime. (He's just landed in the U.S. after visa complications delayed his arrival to appear at multiple festivals.)

A victim of harsh repression tactics, Panahi has nonetheless continued to expose socially relevant themes in his native country, including the treatment of women, the state’s constant surveillance of its citizens and the divide between economic classes. His bravery has resulted in jail sentences and severe restrictions on his ability to make movies.

Today, his champions include director Martin Scorsese, who last week shared the stage with Panahi for a public conversation at the New York Film Festival, where the dissident artist's latest movie, “It Was Just an Accident,” screened to a massive ovation. A morally layered political thriller that arrived in theaters Wednesday, it follows a group of people who believe they have captured the man who tortured them while they were in prison.