No Bears
(Khers Nist)

Playful, powerful, and narratively beguiling, No Bears finds master director Jara Panahi in top form. Starring as a fictionalized version of himself, the filmmaker, who has been barred from leaving Iran, relocates to a remote village to supervise a production taking place just across the border in Turkey. Initially enchanted by his celebrity, the local townspeople grow suspicious of him and his camera. The film within the film, about two lovers attempting to flee Iran, begins to mirror events in the director’s own life as reality becomes increasingly destabilized and the parallel narratives meld into one. The resulting experience is an unforgettable meta-textual reflection on the nature of freedom, oppression, authority, and cinema itself.

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