Jafar Panahi

Acclaimed director Jafar Panahi drives a cab through the streets of Tehran, picking up a diverse group of passengers in a single day and capturing a spirited slice of Iranian society while brilliantly redefining the borders of comedy, drama and cinema. Each man, woman, and child candidly expresses their own view of the world, while being interviewed by the curious and gracious driver/director.

In his new virtuosic sleight-of-hand—completed shortly before his imprisonment in July 2022—Jafar Panahi plays a fictionalized version of himself, who has relocated to a rural border town in Iran to remotely direct a new film in nearby Turkey. While there, he finds himself thrust in the middle of a local scandal, confronting the opposing pulls of tradition and progress.

Fascinated by Iran’s film culture and the works of the feminist poet Forough Farrokhzad, Indian filmmaker Sreemoyee Singh sets out in search of the protagonists of Iranian cinema. The numerous interviews she conducts over a period of six years with filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Shirvani, human rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh, and others, show the precarious situation in which critics of the regime—under constant threat of imprisonment—find themselves. With a keen eye, she documents the effect of the Islamic Republic’s omnipresent censorship on the daily lives of Iranian women whose uncompromising struggle has put them at the forefront of the recent protests that have rocked the country. AND, TOWARDS HAPPY ALLEYS is both a passionate declaration of love for the cinema and poetry of Iran and a frank portrait of daily life that bears witness to a fearless generation raising its voice to demand its civil liberties.

Filmmaker Jafar Panahi and actor Behnaz Jafari travel to a tiny village after receiving a plea for help from a girl whose family has forbidden her from studying acting. Amusing encounters abound, but they soon discover that the local hospitality is rivaled by the desire to protect old traditions.

Narrated by Academy Award-winner Olivia Colman and secretly filmed in Iran by women and men who risked arrest, this film follows the work and life of renowned human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh.

A love letter to cinema, shot across the US, Iran, Chile, China, and Thailand, by seven of today's most vital filmmakers during the pandemic.