Iranian filmmakers: Successful despite censorship

Shortly after winning a major prize at the Cannes Film Festival with "A Man of Integrity," the Hamburg-based director returned to Iran in September 2017. Iranian authorities then confiscated Rasoulof's passport and banned him from directing new films. In July 2019, he was sentenced to a year in prison. He nevertheless managed to shoot "There Is No Evil" (photo), which won the Golden Bear in 2020.

Abdolreza Kahani migrated to France in 2015 after three of his films were banned in the Islamic Republic and he was prevented from submitting them to international festivals. "We are born into censorship. Censorship affects not just literature, music and film. Censorship begins inside the home," he told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) in a recent interview.

Getting a screening permit for films that premiered at world festivals can take years: Kianoush Ayari's "The Paternal House," from 2012, was only released in Iran last year after the director agreed to make some edits. But a week later, in November 2019, the film was banned, prompting 200 film personalities to sign an open letter condemning state censorship and calling for freedom of expression.

He is one of the few directors to have won the Oscar for best foreign film twice: "A Separation" (2012) and in 2016, "The Salesman" (photo). Farhadi boycotted the second ceremony, which took place shortly after Trump's "Muslim travel ban." Even though Iranian officials were behind Farhadi's Oscar entries, the filmmaker was among the signatories of the 2019 open call condemning state censorship.

Iranian-Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi directed the world's first Kurdish-language feature film, the 2000 "A Time for Drunken Horses" (photo). Following his semi-documentary about the underground indie music scene in Tehran, "No One Knows About Persian Cats" (2009), Ghobadi fled Iran, as intelligence agents repeatedly threatened him and urged him to leave. Those two films won awards at Cannes.

Having permanently left Iran as a young adult, Marjane Satrapi didn't have to deal with Iranian authorities as an author and filmmaker. Her best-known comic book, "Persepolis" (photo) adapted into a film that won the Cannes Jury Prize in 2007, offers a personal depiction of how a teenager can get into trouble with the police by disregarding modesty codes and buying music banned by the regime.

Released shortly before the 9/11 attacks, Mohsen Makhmalbaf's 2001 film, "Kandahar," became a must-see work about the fate of Afghan women. Many of the award-winning director's films are banned in Iran, and he left the country to live in France after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election. His most recent feature film, "The President" (photo) opened the Venice Film Festival in 2014.

The daughter of Mohsen Makhmalbaf is one of the most influential directors of the Iranian New Wave. Her first feature film, "The Apple," which she directed at the age of 17, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1998. Two years later, she won the Cannes Jury Prize with "Blackboards. (photo). She then became the youngest person to sit on the jury of festivals such as Cannes, Venice and Berlin.

Winning a Cannes award with his 1995 feature debut, "The White Balloon," Panahi kept receiving international acclaim despite increasing restrictions in Iran. Since 2010, he has been banned from making films and leaving the country, but still managed to secretly direct more works, including the Golden Bear-winning "Taxi" (2015) and "3 Faces" (photo), which won Cannes' best screenplay prize in 2018.

A decade after winning the International Award at the Venice Biennale, the visual artist's feature debut, "Women Without Men" (photo) was also honored at the Venice film festival in 2009. A critic of political injustice, Neshat lives in self-imposed exile in New York. "While I am critical of the West, women artists in Iran still face censorship, torture and, at times, execution," she said.