Jafar Panahi’s ‘No Bears’ Acquired by Sideshow and Janus Films While Iranian Director is Imprisoned

thewrap.com:

arrested by Iranian authorities after he had inquired about the status of two other detained Iranian directors. The government has now forced him to serve out a six-year jail sentence originally issued to Panahi in December 2010.

At that time, he was banned for 20 years from directing movies, writing screenplays or giving any form of interview with an Iranian or foreign press, though he has since showcased other films such as “This Is Not a Film,” “Closed Curtain,” “Taxi” and “3 Faces” in defiance of his order and state-attempted censorship. “No Bears” will receive a theatrical release from Sideshow and Janus and will also receive an awards campaign push, though no release date has been specified.

The film also be released in Canada by Films We Like. “No Bears” portrays two parallel love stories. In both, the lovers are troubled by hidden, inevitable obstacles, the force of superstition and the mechanics of power.

Panahi wrote, produced, directed and also stars in the film, and he’s joined in the cast by Naser Hashemi, Vahid Mobaseri, Bakhtiar Panjei, Mina Kavani, Narjes Dalaram and Reza Heydari. “I’ve been working with Jafar since his debut, ‘The White Balloon,’ which was the first significant North American release of an Iranian movie and the only film by Jafar to be released in his own country because of his subsequent refusal to comply with censorship requests.