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No Bears (Persian: خرس نیست, romanized: Khers Nist, lit. 'There are no bears') is a 2022 Iranian drama film written, directed and produced by Jafar Panahi. The film was shot secretly in Iran and stars Panahi, Naser Hashemi [fa], Vahid Mobasri, Bakhtiar Panjei and Mina Kavani. It wrapped production in May 2022 and is distributed by Celluloid Dreams.

No Bears
Release poster
Persian	خرس نیست
Literally	There are no bears
Directed by	Jafar Panahi
Written by	Jafar Panahi
Produced by	Jafar Panahi
Starring	Jafar Panahi Naser Hashemi [fa] Vahid Mobsari Bakhtiar Panjei Mina Kavani Reza Heydari
Edited by	Amir Etminan
Distributed by	Celluloid Dreams
Release date	9 September 2022 (2022-09-09) (Venice)
Running time	107 minutes[1]:4
Country	Iran
Languages	Persian Azerbaijani Turkish

No Bears premiered at the 79th Venice Film Festival in competition for the Golden Lion, without the presence of the director, who has been arrested and sentenced to 6 years prison in Iran, prior to the film's release.[2] It won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival in September 2022,[3] and received generally positive reviews from critics.

Premise

The film portrays "two parallel love stories in which the lovers struggle with hidden and unavoidable obstacles, the force of superstitions and the mechanics of power".[4][1]

Cast

Production

No Bears is the ninth feature film directed by Jafar Panahi and the first film after 3 Faces (2018).[5] This filmmaker had made two short films in between. In addition to writing, directing and producing No Bears, Panahi also stars in the film with Naser Hashemi [fa], Vahid Mobasri, Bakhtiar Panjei, Mina Khosravani, and others.[1][5] Panahi is said to have received more freedom to produce the film after the end of the curfew imposed in 2022, due to the spread of Covid-19 in Iran.[4]

Production wrapped in May 2022,[5] and the rights were traded shortly after at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival by Paris-based Celluloid Dreams, which had undertaken the same task for the director's previous works.[4]

Director's Arrest

On July 11, 2022, Panahi has been arrested and sentenced to six years in Evin prison on the charges of "propaganda against the regime".[6] According to himself, after the arrest of his two colleagues, Mohammad Rasoulof and Mustafa Al-Ahmad [fa], he had expressed solidarity along with several hundred other filmmakers over the Internet; they are said to have demonstrated online against the police brutality in Iran.[7]

After No Bears was selected for the Golden Lion competition of the Venice Film Festival, the Ministry of Culture of the Islamic Republic of Iran called the film a "political game [rather than a] movie [that] does not have a production license".[8] On July 28, 2022, the Iranian Film Directors Association [fa] issued an official statement congratulating the selected directors for the nomination, and moreover demanding from the Iranian government, to consider "the request of 19 cinema guilds, and hundreds of cinematographers [to] examine the status of these filmmakers, and their release as soon as possible".[9]

It is reported that the 79th Venice Film Festival has been significantly affected by the arrest and trial of Panahi;[10] Alberto Barbera, the artistic director of the said festival, after announcing the list of films in a media event, demanded the release of directors Panahi, Rasoulov and Al-Ahmad.[11] He later called on "all filmmakers and other personalities" to join a flash mob that will take place on the red carpet before the premiere on September 9 at 16:30 at the Palazzo del Cinema, to protest Panahi's arrest and to show solidarity with others from around the world who have faced persecution in the same way.[12][13][14]

Release

No Bears had its world premiere in-competition at the 79th Venice International Film Festival for the Golden Lion, on 9 September 2022.[15] Another screening of the film is scheduled for the same month at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.[16]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 31 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.30/10.[17] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 86 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[18]

Accolades

Panahi competed for the Golden Lion, the main prize of the Venice Film Festival for the second time; he first received this award for his movie The Circle (2000).[19] No Bears won the Special Jury Prize with actors Mina Khosravani and Reza Heydari accepting the award in Panahi's absence.[20]

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient(s)	Result	Ref(s)
Venice Film Festival	31 August – 10 September 2022	Golden Lion	Jafar Panahi	Nominated	[21]
		Special Jury Prize	No Bears	Won
Chicago International Film Festival	13–23 October 2022	Award for Cinematic Bravery		Won	[22]
		Gold Hugo		Nominated	[23]
Valladolid International Film Festival	22–29 October 2022	Golden Spike		Nominated	[24]
The director is in prison, so he cannot participate in competitions and receive awards.[2][10]

See also

• The Year of the Everlasting Storm

References

External links

• No Bears at IMDb
• No Bears on Celluloid Dreams
• No Bears at the 79th Venice International Film Festival
• No Bearsat the 47th Toronto International Film Festival

На других языках

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[de] No Bears

No Bears (dt.: „Keine Bären“, Originaltitel: خرس نیست bzw. Khers nist, „Es ist kein Bär“) ist ein Spielfilm des iranischen Filmemachers Jafar Panahi aus dem Jahr 2022.

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- [en] No Bears

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