Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s feminist views have consistently been at the center of his work, but his latest film, No Bears, is an ambitious, powerful piece that puts himself in the center of two narratives, parallel to each other, in which two generations of women are forced into difficult situations because traditions and laws have made it almost impossible for them to be with who they love.
From afar in a border town, Panahi (starring as himself) is directing virtually a film about two lovers, Bakhtiar (Panjeei) and Zara (Kavani), escaping Iran so they can happily be together. The film is a documentary of sorts, and the characters in it are based on the actors themselves and their planned escape. In juxtaposition, Panahi finds himself stuck in the middle of a situation in the small village he is staying in when a rumor spreads about him taking a photo of a couple, Gozal (Alei) and Solduz (Davari). The rumor mill starts to churn because the woman in the photo was promised to another man at birth, cutting the umbilical cord in his name.
In these two situations, Panahi is helpless. This is the same country where Mahsa Amini died in custody after the morality police arrested her for wearing a hijab incorrectly. Women are smothered under oppression, and Panahi is forced to sit in the middle and have his heart break as both scenarios unfold. Zara is upset because she feels like Panahi is purporting a lie in favor of a happy ending for his film. Meanwhile, in the village, the men are furious because they believe Panahi is withholding evidence that Gozal is seeing a man she does not belong to.
These men force Panahi to stand in front of their makeshift jury of men from the village he is staying in; they are concerned he is deliberately covering up evidence and making a mockery of their traditions. On the way, Panahi asks about the bears, having heard a rumor that they roam the village at night, making it dangerous to go out. To that, his acquaintance replies: “There are no bears. Nonsense! Stories made up to scare us! Our fear empowers others. No bears!”
Fear for our own safety often prevents us from standing up for many. Panahi tries to do right by these women, but ultimately there is not much one man can do, and not without great risk to himself. (The director himself was recently jailed for seven months.) Centuries of women being treated as property and not being heard have made him powerless in these situations, as hard as he tries to do good by them. Their fates are laced in tragedy, and Panahi stands on the sidelines as their witness.
This article appears in February 10 • 2023.