Month: June 2023
No Bears by Jafar Panahi
Iranian cinema filmed in 2022 Iranian “New Wave” cinema seems to forsake narrative in favour of mood, in favour of speculative thought. The recently reviewed “A Time for Drunken Horses” by Bahman Ghobadi is an exception: this is straight storytelling, direct and true. “No Bears” also concerns itself with the pressing matter of border-smuggling but as a category of film it is something new: there is a narrative but there is also the constant presence of the filmmaker, Panahi himself. He attempts to stay neutral and only by the end is it clear the Panah may be well-meaning and detached…