Milos Interviews Jamsheed Akrami on “3 Faces”

A still from Jafar Panahi’s ‘3 Faces’
A still from Jafar Panahi's '3 Faces' Courtesy, Kino Lorber
A still from Jafar Panahi’s ‘3 Faces’
A still from Jafar Panahi's '3 Faces' Courtesy, Kino Lorber

Milos Interviews Jamsheed Akrami on “3 Faces”

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Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iranian filmmakers have had to work under strict government censorship. Filmmakers responded by either leaving the country, like Mohsen Makhmalbaf, or working within its artistic constraints, as Abbas Kiarostami did. But not all of them fall neatly into these camps. Since 2010, Jafar Panahi’s movies criticizing the Islamic Republic have been banned in Iran and he’s been arrested multiple times. Rather than halting his career, however, the ban simply pushed Panahi underground. He secretly shot ‘This Is Not a Film’ (2012) and ‘Closed Curtain’ (2013) within his home and beachfront villa and ‘Taxi’ (2015) in a taxicab. Panahi has now come out with his fourth film since the ban, ‘3 Faces.’ WBEZ Film Contributor Milos Stehlik chats about it with an expert on Iranian cinema and one of the earliest champions of Panahi’s work, professor at William Morris University Jamsheed Akrami.