Jahar Panahi has over the last few decades continued to produce films that touch audiences and move the medium of film in new directions, winning the trifecta of the big global film awards (Cannes, Venice, Berlin) despite over the last decade being incarcerated and banned from film-making in his home country.

2025 would see the Iranian filmmaker win the coveted Cannes Palme d’Or for his latest film but it has also seen the artist sentenced in absentia to further prison time by the Iranian government for allegedly producing anti-state propaganda.

Stephen Hill talked to the director of the Persian Film Festival Amin Palangi about the struggles this human-rights focused film maker has had in his native Iran and how he was been able to overcome the many barriers placed upon him by an authoritarian government that aims to smuggle free expression.