LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi is among 17 human rights lawyers, artists and activists who signed a statement recently declaring that Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei is primarily responsible for the mass killing of Iranian protesters. Among the signatories was also Mehdi Mahmoudian, who co-wrote their film, "It Was Just An Accident," nominated for an Oscar this year. Last week, Mahmoudian was arrested with two others who signed the statement for putting their names to these words. Each day this regime remains in power, it deepens society's collapse, spreads death and destruction, and drives the country further toward irreversible ruin. Panahi joined me from France and recounted through interpreter Sheida Dayani how he first heard the news.
JAFAR PANAHI: (Through interpreter) The night before, we were texting, and the last text I sent him was 3:30 a.m. my time in Paris. But then I realized that it was not seen, and I started calling him after I woke up and he was not answering. So together with some other friends, we were suspicious that he might have been arrested.
FADEL: You actually met him in prison. What stood out to you about him?
PANAHI: (Through interpreter) The thing that stood out to me about him was that it didn't matter who the prisoner was from what category or school of thought or for what crime they were there. He immediately attended to the person, to their needs, and because he had very good social relations, he was able to bring in whatever the person needed. Because Mehdi was in prison for about nine years and arrested around eight times. He knew exactly what to do to help prisoners overcome their needs and their senses of loneliness. He had great experience as a prisoner, but he's also a human rights activist.
FADEL: And is that why you brought him on as a co-writer on your film?
PANAHI: (Through interpreter) Yes, of course, in order to make sure that the dialogues are correct and believable, I sat down with him and I asked him to review all the dialogues and tell me what he thinks based on each character's culture. There were many things that he remembered from prison, and there were many things that he had heard from other prisoners. So he would tell us about those stories and we would bring them into the script.
FADEL: The film that you made has been called required watching, and it really explores through a group of former prisoners who think they found the man who tortured and brutalized them when they were in prison. It explores this cycle of revenge and the breaking of this cycle of brutality and how to find a place of forgiveness, really. One of your characters, Shiva, says, it's not because they resorted to violence that we should, too. And I wonder, after these killings of thousands of protesters, arrests of tens of thousands of people, including your co-writer because they demanded change, because they condemn this violence, if your view on the possibility of breaking that cycle has changed?
PANAHI: (Through interpreter) I have thought about this concept a lot, and in the film, you see the nonviolence spirit in people. Mehdi himself told us that after the bombardment of the Evin prison during the 12-day war with Israel, that as soon as they exited the ward where they were kept, and they saw the interrogators were also stuck under the rubble. And instead of leaving and saving their own lives, they started to take the interrogators out to save their lives. And as I was watching these videos and seeing everything unfold, I was thinking to myself about this question of violence, whether it is going to end somewhere or if it's going to repeat itself again.
FADEL: I think of a character in your film as they are discussing what to do with this man, who might have been the man who tortured them in prison. And he says, those who promised to liberate us kill our children while reciting prayers. And I think about the videos I watched of people collecting their dead coming out of Iran. How does this end?
PANAHI: (Through interpreter) This regime has collapsed, and it is a failed state in any way you can possibly imagine. It is a failed state politically, ideologically, economically, culturally and environmentally, and it is not going to be able to last. The only reason it has survived is because of the amount of force it has used.
FADEL: The U.S. is openly talking about strikes against Iran, weighing that. Do you want international intervention?
PANAHI: (Through interpreter) I am a socially engaged filmmaker and I don't think of the powers, the greater powers. I think of people. So any international support has to be representing the demands of people, but it cannot be giving support to the existence of the regime. And people are striving for getting to what is in their culture, and that is freedom.
FADEL: You do this work at great risk, telling these stories. You're a socially engaged filmmaker. I know that. Mehdi must have known as well making this film was risky. Signing the statement was risky. Why do you do it anyway?
PANAHI: (Through interpreter) I believe that we're not doing anything special, and I believe that people are doing a lot more than we are. We are only portraying what people do. When you live with such people and you believe in cinema and in social filmmaking, then it's only natural to do what we do.
FADEL: That was Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, speaking to me through his interpreter, Sheida Dayani, about the arrest of his co-writer on their Oscar-nominated film, "It Was Just An Accident."
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