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Iranian multihyphenate Maryam Moghaddam was last seen on screen in Berlin in Jafar Panahi and Kambuzia Partovi’s “Closed Curtain,” which in 2013 won the Silver Bear for best script. She’s back as protagonist of “Ballad of a White Cow,” which Moghaddam also co-directed and co-wrote with her partner Behtash Sanaeeha. The pic features a potent central character named Mina, the struggling single mother of a deaf daughter contending with the consequences of a blatant injustice: her husband Babak has been executed for a crime he did not commit.

As Mina battles for a public apology from the judges who erroneously served her husband’s death sentence, a stranger, Reza, appears on her doorstep, saying that he has come to repay a debt he owes to Babak. As Reza helps her cope with the complications of her predicament, Mina gradually opens up to him, unaware of the terrible secret that binds them together.

3 Faces is the fourth film Jafar Panahi has made in defiance of a 20-year filmmaking ban the Iranian government issued against him in 2010. The first three were all small-scale affairs, shot solo or with tiny crews, in which the camera never left the confines of a given space – Panahi’s apartment building in This Is Not a Film (2011), a holiday house in Closed Curtain (2013), and a taxi in Taxi (2015). His newest, which sees him working with a larger team, is almost entirely set in a remote village in the mountains, likely in Iranian Azerbaijan. This shift is in keeping with the thematic trajectory drawn by this series of clandestine films. While the first one focused on Panahi’s own predicament, each new installment has expanded the scope of his critique, encompassing further facets of the oppression engendered by the authoritarian values that hold sway over large parts of Iranian society.

Iranian government seizes passports of director Kambuzia Partovi and actor Maryam Moghadam, preventing them from promoting film abroad

The co-director and star of Iranian dissident film-maker Jafar Panahi's Berlin prizewinner Closed Curtain have had their passports confiscated by officials.

The move means Kambuzia Partovi and actor Maryam Moghadam will no longer be able to go abroad to promote the winner of the 2013 Silver Bear for best screenplay. Panahi himself remains under house arrest in the Islamic Republic after being banned from making films for 20 years and sentenced to six years in prison in December 2010.

Iran's authorities berated Berlin organisers for rewarding Panahi, the celebrated director of The White Balloon and Offside, earlier this month. Closed Curtain is the second movie he has made (following 2011's This Is Not a Film) since his government ban. "Making these films is illegal," said Iranian cinema chief and deputy culture minister Javad Shamaqdari,...

This is Not a Film; McCullin; Hope Springs; Rust and Bone; Frankenweenie; On the Road; Paranormal Activity 4; Premium Rush

It is often said that the greatest auteurs make films not because they want to but because they have to – it's as natural and essential as breathing. In December 2010 the Iranian maestro Jafar Panahi was banned from making movies and sentenced to six years in prison for creating "propaganda against the Islamic republic", a judgment that sparked outrage around the world.

While awaiting the outcome of an appeal, Panahi was visited in his home by his friend Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, who filmed Panahi wandering through his apartment, feeding his pet iguana, reflecting on scenes from his past movies and describing the latest script that he had been refused permission to shoot – the story of a young girl accepted for university but locked in her house by her zealous father.

That visit...

Islamic republic protests against best screenplay prize for banned director Jafar Panahi, who remains under house arrest

Iran has berated the organisers of the Berlin film festival for awarding a prize to the celebrated director Jafar Panahi, who remains under house arrest in the Islamic republic.

Panahi received the award for best screenplay at the weekend for his film Parde (Closed Curtain), made with fellow dissident and regular collaborator Kambuzia Partovi. It is the second movie Panahi has made (following 2011's This Is Not a Film) since being banned from making films for 20 years and sentenced to six years in prison in December 2010.

"We have protested to the Berlin film festival organisers," said Iranian cinema chief and deputy culture minister Javad Shamaqdari, according to the Isna news agency. "We believe that the Berlin fest organisers should correct their behaviour. Everyone knows that making a film and sending it outside the country needs permission.

Two low-budget films, one from Romania and the other from Bosnia, take top prizes for portrayals of post-communist life

Eastern European film-makers basked in the limelight at the weekend after two low-budget pictures snapped up the top prizes at Berlin's international film festival.

The Berlinale's first prize, the Golden Bear, was awarded to a quasi-documentary-style Romanian film, Pozitia Copilului, or Child's Pose, directed by Calin Peter Netzer, a standard-bearer for the critically acclaimed new wave of film-making in his country. Starring Luminita Gheorghiu in a fearsome performance, the film tells the story of a mother's desperate and often illegal attempts to save her son from prosecution after he knocks down and kills an impoverished teenager.

Netzer said it reflected the "moral malaise of Romania's corruption-ridden middle classes". It also fitted the festival's penchant for delivering contemporary social drama with a strong political message.

The Bosnian documentary drama An Episode in...

★★★☆☆ Despite finding himself under house arrest and banned from filmmaking for 'committing propaganda against the Iranian government', resourceful director Jafar Panahi follows his critically acclaimed documentary This Is Not a Film (2011) with Closed Curtain (Parde, 2013) - an existential example of meta filmmaking disguised as a humanist chamber piece about political repression. Closed Curtain opens with an extended static shot observed through the metal security bars of a coastal villa's window. As we'll discover, this non-to-subtle metaphor for Panahi's controversial imprisonment is just one of many heavy-handed devices used throughout the film.

Read more »...

A list of the movies being shown in the official program at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, which runs Feb. 7-17.

In competition:

Dolgaya schastlivaya zhizn (A Long and Happy Life), director Boris Khlebnikov.

Prince Avalanche, David Gordon Green.

Uroki Garmonii (Harmony Lessons), Emir Baigazin.

Vic+Flo ont vu un ours (Vic+Flo Saw a Bear), Denis Cote.

W imie … (In the Name of), Malgoska Szumowska.

Camille Claudel 1915, Bruno Dumont.

Elle s’en va (On my Way), Emmanuelle Bercot.

Epizoda u zivotu beraca zeljeza (An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker), Danis Tanovic.

Gloria, Sebastian Lelio.

A list of the movies being shown in the official program at this year's Berlin International Film Festival, which runs Feb. 7-17.

In competition:

"Dolgaya schastlivaya zhizn" ("A Long and Happy Life"), director Boris Khlebnikov.

"Prince Avalanche," David Gordon Green.

"Uroki Garmonii" ("Harmony Lessons"), Emir Baigazin.

"Vic+Flo ont vu un ours" ("Vic+Flo Saw a Bear"), Denis Cote.

"W imie ..." ("In the Name of"), Malgoska Szumowska.

"Camille Claudel 1915," Bruno Dumont.

"Elle s'en va" ("On my Way"), Emmanuelle Bercot.

"Epizoda u zivotu beraca zeljeza" ("An Episode in the Life of an Iron

Picker"), Danis Tanovic.

"Gloria," Sebastian Lelio.

"Gold," Thomas Arslan.

"La Religieuse" ("The Nun"), Guillaume Nicloux.

"Layla Fourie," Pia Marais.

"The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman," Fredrik Bond.

"Nugu-ui Ttal-do Anin Haewon" ("Nobody's Daughter Haewon"), Hong Sangsoo.

"Paradies: Hoffnung" ("Paradise: Hope"), Ulrich Seidl.

"Parde" ("Closed Curtain"), Jafar Panahi and Kambozia Partovi.

"Pozitia Copilului" ("Child's Pose"), Calin Peter Netzer.

"Promised Land,...