Small Acts of Resistance: The Films of Jafar Panahi

Since the 1990s, Jafar Panahi has been a central figure in contemporary Iranian cinema and one of its most acclaimed voices on the global stage. A master of the semi-documentary form, Panahi has captured the spirit and texture of Tehran with a rare intimacy and precision. Even after receiving a draconian sentence that placed him under house arrest and banned him from filmmaking, Panahi refused to turn off his camera. He transformed his confinement into creative opportunity by turning his own apartment into a film set and making his restricted access to the city a central theme of his work.
Many of the recurring threads in his cinema culminate in his latest film, It Was Just an Accident (2025), which won the Palme d’or among many other prestigious awards. Timed with the U.S. release of the film in October 2025, this talk offers an overview of Panahi’s career, with a particular focus on the formal and thematic innovations of his most recent work.