SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Jafar Panahi's been jailed twice for making movies. He's criticized the current Iranian government. One of the first things he's done after his recent release is to make another film. It's called "It Was Just An Accident." A mechanic called Vahid overhears the voice of a man at an auto repair shop and the scrape of his prosthetic leg. He believes the man is Eghbal, who once tortured him in an Iranian prison. Vahid abducts the man, digs a hole to bury him in the desert. What follows is an extraordinary road picture as Vahid finds others who may have been abused by the man to certify that it's him. If it is, what will they do?
"It Was Just An Accident" won the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Jafar Panahi, one of the most honored filmmakers in the world, joins us now, along with interpreter Sheida Dayani.
JAFAR PANAHI: Thank you.
SHEIDA DAYANI: Thank you.
SIMON: How challenging is it for you to make a film in Iran these days?
PANAHI: (Through interpreter) I really think it's not about the country, and it's about whether or not the filmmaker believes in what he's doing. In Iran, when you want to make a film, you have to definitely give them the script. They will tell you what to add and what to take out, and then it's no longer your film. And if you don't want to comply and you want to make your own film, the legal way is closed to you, and therefore, you have to make it clandestinely. It is as challenging to me as it is to other filmmakers who don't want to bow to censorship.
SIMON: Well, how do you make a film without being discovered?
PANAHI: (Through interpreter) Unfortunately, I cannot give all the tricks here because that is going to expose others, and they won't be able to work. But I can tell you about the general things. One is to work with a small team. One is to use limited equipment, and the other is to try your best not to attract attention.
SIMON: Tell us about this group in the movie that comes together in the van and then the desert - Shiva, the wedding photographer, Ali and Goli, the couple, and Hamid.
PANAHI: (Through interpreter) Each of these characters represents a school of thought that have now come together in a group and are challenging each other. And this is for us to, at the end, come up with a conclusion. One believes in violence. Another is nonviolent. Another is not even political and doesn't want to get involved in these things. And you can see this everywhere. This can both help the plot moving forward and the content.
SIMON: There are amazing scenes. When the wife of the man in the van - without giving away too much, she gives birth, and the group debates what to do with her husband. And they're touched by his wife and the little girl. How does this change their thinking?
PANAHI: (Through interpreter) In socially engaged films, the blame and the fault is never on individuals, but it is on the system and on the government. And people - exactly when they have to come to each other's rescue, they will, even if they are each other's enemies. I'll bring you a simple example. In the 12-day war, Israel shot a few missiles to the Evin Prison, and one of the missiles had hit exactly the ward in which I was imprisoned myself a few years ago. The entrance was destroyed. The walls had collapsed, and the prisoners left in order to save their lives.
And exactly in front of that entrance were the rooms in which the interrogation sessions happened, and those rooms were mostly occupied with interrogators. The prisoners saw that the interrogators' rooms are also destroyed, and there are people wounded and they cannot get up. If the prisoners wanted to save themselves, they didn't have to wait around. They didn't have to go to the other side. They should have just left, especially because they had been interrogated in that very place. But they did go there, and they took out the interrogators from out of the debris. Now, you tell me how we can explain this.
SIMON: I mean, it does make me think of one of the many lines in your film. The man in their custody kind of taunts Vahid at one point, saying, you're not a killer. Haven't we learned painfully through history that ordinary people can become killers?
PANAHI: (Through interpreter) No. People are forced into killing. That's what I was trying to get at. It is the system that is the broken system, that is the wrong system that inculcates killing and not rescue. And this is why the elements of vengeance and forgiveness in this film are only there to serve the plot. I don't want to make a film about these topics. I am trying to raise a fundamental question. Is the cycle of violence going to continue, or are we going to say, cut, at some point and end it?
SIMON: Mr. Panahi, do you mind if I ask if you can feel safe in Iran?
PANAHI: (Through interpreter) I only feel safe in Iran. When I leave Iran, I cannot adapt myself to the environment outside because my lack of knowledge and understanding gives it a touristy feel, especially because I am a filmmaker. And if I don't know a society and if I don't know its people, I am not able to make films about them, and I'm not able to judge them. I really love my country. And any time they ask me if I want to leave, I immediately say, no. I want to return.
SIMON: Yeah. What does receiving the Palme d'Or in Cannes mean to you?
PANAHI: (Through interpreter) I don't know. There's something in the Eastern spirit that doesn't allow you to compliment yourself. The most important issue is that it gives permission, the license for the film to be seen. It makes people curious about what this film is. It is very important to me that the film gets seen - doesn't matter where; in the U.S., around the world - so that we can talk together. We can hear each other's beliefs. And knowing that people around the world will be seeing this film in cinemas, in big theaters is really the biggest joy for me.
SIMON: Jafar Panahi's "It Was Just An Accident" is in theaters now. Thank you so much for being with us and to our interpreter, Sheida Dayani.
PANAHI: Thank you.
DAYANI: Thank you.
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