“No Bears” review: Jafar Panahi, now imprisoned, tenderly shows the difficulty of leaving Iran

There was an empty seat next to the name 'J Panahi' at the Venice Film Festival press conference for 'No Bears'. The arthouse darling, famous for finding ingenious ways to circumvent Iran's draconian laws ("This is not a movie" was smuggled out of the country on a USB stick buried in a cake posted in 'Iran in Paris), was arrested in August to serve a six-year deferred sentence, in a government crackdown that has also seen directors Mohammad Rasoulef and Mostafa Aleahmad locked up. Against this sobering backdrop, the harassment suffered by Panahi-playing Panahi in his slippery work of docurrealism lands all the more sickeningly and hints at details we probably haven't uncovered yet.

Panahi is a director who has always mixed reality and fiction, and here the distinction is more blurred than ever, so that at the time of the final credits, it is not clear exactly what was staged and what was real. Arguably, this is a good strategy for circumventing rigorous scrutiny: creating a cinematic work so elusive in its relationship to reality that plausible deniability is built into its conditions of existence.

“No Bears” opens on a busy street in Turkey full of vocal street vendors. One man balances a large wicker basket of bread impressively on his head as he walks, while another plays the flute fairly well. Zara (Mina Kavani) rushes out of a cafe to meet Bakhtiyar (Bakhtiyar Panjeei) for a whispered conversation about the arrival of her fake French passport, bought from smugglers. She has a new identity that buys her three days to leave the country, which he encourages, but she refuses to leave without him. Then something surprising happens. After "Cut!" is called, AD Reza (Reza Heydari) turns to the camera to speak to the director who is watching from a distance. Panahi gives him notes on what we now see as a movie within a movie.

Panahi has moved to a small village near the Turkish border, renting a cottage from the hospitable but anxious Ghanbar (Vahid Mobaseri). No one in the village is sure what brings a man of his fame to their traditional locality, defined by its proximity to a place that is not Iran and where smugglers and their fast cars are a faceless force. . Panahi shows off his usual affection for small good deeds from neighbors when Ghanbar climbs a ladder to the roof to see what's wrong with Panahi's internet connection. Regardless of the curiosity, as well as fear and mistrust the villagers have around his presence, clashes rarely take place without refreshments. Hospitality and harassment prove both sides of our intrepid filmmaker's experience here.

AD Reza drives off to meet Panahi when they can't connect online, leading to an amazing section that cuts all sorts of ways. Reza wants to take Panahi to the border for what appears to be a scouting act for their film. They wordlessly climb a dusty, rocky hill until a mysterious Elsewhere glowing with hundreds of tiny lights twinkles on the horizon. Panahi asks exactly where the border is. Reza points to the ground directly under their feet and Panahi backs away, scared. For most of the movie, he's a stoic, unwavering presence, but here his eyes glow with fear. "No Bears" breaks its fourth wall to show what mixed feelings exist around escaping your homeland, even one that would have you behind bars.

A back-to-back drama takes the form of a love triangle in the village. Gozbal (Darya Alei) is under social pressure to marry a man she doesn't love, while secretly in love with Soldooz (Amid Davari). Panahi becomes involved in this after being accused of taking a photo of Gozbal with Soldooz together, thus proving that they are having an affair. It's the catalyst for the constant harassment he receives from the polite but persistent village headman (Naser Hashemi) and hot-headed future husband. Panahi illustrates this rather unpleasant scenario by focusing on the customs and superstitions of village life, pointing out that these men act out of belief rather than malice. Even when events turn oppressive, he is still able to conjure up wandering moments of pleasure born from human observations.

Back in Turkey, events are also becoming increasingly airless. Far from being a work of fiction, the film-within-a-film reveals itself as a documentary aimed at capturing Zara and Bakhtiyar at this pivotal moment in their lives as these enemies of the state attempt to flee. Panahi (the director of "No Bears") dances between showing the difficulties of t...