What’s the true test of an artist? In 2022, many artists get upset if their work doesn’t get good reviews or doesn’t make money. There are artists who are purists, who say they don’t care about those things, also. But maybe the true test of an artist is actually getting imprisoned for your art, as in the cast of filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who is about to release his new film, “No Bears.” Unfortunately for the filmmaker, he is in prison, serving a six-year term, because he wouldn’t stop pursuing his art.
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As seen in the opening bit of the new trailer for “No Bears,” the story of Jafar Panahi’s newest film is overshadowed by the recent news that the filmmaker has been sent to an Iranian prison due to continuing his career making movies. As for the film, “No Bears” stars Panahi as a fictionalized version of himself, as he attempts to direct a film in a society filled with oppression. Joining Panahi in the cast are Naser Hashemi, Vahid Mobaseri, Bakhtiar Panjei, Mina Kavani, Narjes Dalaram, and Reza Heydari.
“No Bears” opens in select theaters on December 23 before expanding to more cinemas in early 2023. You can watch the trailer below.
Here’s the synopsis:
One of the world’s great cinematic artists, Jafar Panahi has been carefully crafting self-reflexive works about artistic, personal, and political freedom for the past three decades, despite his oppression at the hands of the Iranian government. Now, as the international film community vehemently denounces his summer 2022 arrest and continued imprisonment for his vocal support of a fellow artist’s independence, Panahi has gifted us all with a new virtuosic sleight-of-hand. In NO BEARS, as in many of his recent titles, Panahi plays a fictionalized version of himself, in this case relocated to a rural border town to remotely direct a new film in nearby Turkey – the story of which comes to sharply mirror disturbing events that begin to occur around him. As he struggles to complete his film, Panahi finds himself thrust in the middle of a local scandal, confronting the opposing pulls of tradition and progress, city and country, belief and evidence, and the universal desire to reject oppression