Asghar Farhadi pleads Iran to allow filmmaker Jafar Panahi to attend Cannes filmfest

Politique (politics), as they say in French, is very much a part of the Cannes Film Festival, right from the films it picks for its two main sections — in competition for Palme d’Or and the Un Certain Regard — to the stuff actors and directors say and do.

Asghar Farhadi, one of the two Iranian directors whose films are in competition in Cannes, took a few minutes at the end of the press conference for his film to call on the Iranian government to allow his fellow director Jafar Panahi to travel to Cannes for the show of his film, 3 Faces.

“I thought perhaps we could go on to one last point,” he said taking the mike.

“I spoke to him yesterday. I have great respect for his work. I continue to hope he will be able to come. I think there’s still time. I would like to send out this message. I hope the decision will be made for him to come. What’s important for him is not to catch a plane, but to see how spectators view his film, how they’ll react.”

Panahi, charged with propaganda against the Iranian government, has been under house arrest since 2011.

That year, when his This is Not a Film was shown at Cannes, it had to be smuggled out of Iran in a flash drive hidden inside a cake.

It’s not known which confectionary item the director has chosen for 3 Faces, which screens on May 13.