Art can't be imprisoned: Iranian filmmaker

Iranian filmmaker Nahid Hasanzadeh says art cannot be imprisoned and it finds its way out.

Referring to director Jafar Panahi who has been sentenced to a 20-year ban on directing movies, writing screenplays and is restricted to travelling within Iran, Nahid said: "You can't imprison art and even if the artist is restricted, art finds a way out one day."

Despite the ban, Panahi managed to helm his latest film "Taxi" which premiered at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2015 and won the Golden Bear, the prize awarded for the best film in the festival. This was his third film during the ban.

Nahid's film "Another Time" is being screened at the ongoing 22nd Kolkata International Film Festival and has been selected under the International Competition: Women Directors' Films section at the fest.

The film, her first feature film, deals with the struggle of a woman, Somayeh, who gives birth out of wedlock.

Nahid is a trained midwife and went on to study filmmaking at the Iranian Young Cinema Society of Tehran.

Speaking about financial and political constraints in filmmaking in Iran, Nahid said one could make films without authorisation but screening is a different issue.

"There are a lot of filmmakers who make films without authorisation but to screen is another problem," she added.

--IANS

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