[Reader-list] A Letter from Jafar Panahi, the Iranian Film Director
rehan ansari
rehanhasanansari at yahoo.com
Sat Jun 16 23:06:24 IST 2001
I was shocked to read about how Jafar Panahi was
treated by immigration at JFK airport while his film,
The Circle, was showing in a theatre in the West
Village.
--- City Press <city_press at email.com> wrote:
> Date: Thu, 07 Jun 2001 09:31:36 +0500
> From: City Press <city_press at email.com>
> Reply-to: city_press at email.com
> To: Ajmal Kamal <aaj at digicom.net.pk>
> Subject: A Letter from Jafar Panahi, the Iranian
> Film Director
>
> Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
>
> As the winner of the Freedom of Expression Award for
> my film, The
> Circle, I would like to take your kind attention to
> what happened to me
> in your country, an incident that takes place
> everyday in US. And let
> me hope to see your reaction to these inhuman
> incidents. I believe, I am
> entitled to be curious about the response of the
> Board who granted me
> such Award, a response proportionate to the behavior
> I and many other
> people faced and will face.
>
> You have considered my movie as a "wonderful and
> daring" film and I wish
> your Board and the US media would dare to condemn
> the savage acts of
> American Police/Immigration Officers and may such
> condemnation would
> make the people aware of these acts. Otherwise,
> what would mean
> winning such Award for me? And what honor I would
> have to keep it? Then,
> I may return this Award to you as you may find
> another figure that is
> more in proportionate to freedom!
>
> In the booklet you kindly sent me together with
> your Award, I read
> that a prestigious film personality like Orson
> Welles has already
> received this Award. Should I be happy that this
> great man is not among
> us now to hear how the American police behaves to
> the filmmakers or
> people who enter
> your country? As a filmmaker obsessed with social
> issues, my films deal
> with social problems and limits and naturally I
> cannot be indifferent to
> racist, violent, insulting and inhuman acts in any
> place in the world.
>
> However, I certainly do detach the acts of American
> police and
> politicians from the cultural institutions and
> figures as well as from
> the people of USA - as I was informed, the film
> critics and audiences in
> your country very well received my film.
> Nevertheless, I will inform
> the world media about my unpleasant experience in
> New York and I hope,
> your Board, who strives in freedom of expression,
> would react properly
> in this respect.
>
> On April 15, I left Hong Kong Film Festival to the
> Montevideo and Buenos
> Aires Festivals through United Airlines' flight 820.
> This 30-hours trip
> was via New York JFK airport and I had to stay
> there for two hours
> and change my flight to Montevideo. Further to my
> requests, the staff
> of all the said Festivals had already checked if a
> transit visa is
> required
> and they assured me there is no need for such
> visa and moreover, the
> airliner issued me the ticket visa NY. But, I
> myself did ask the United
> Airlines staff for the need for a transit visa at
> Hong Kong airport and
> I heard the same response.
>
> As soon as I arrived at JFK airport, the American
> police took me to an
> office and they asked for finger-printing and
> photography because of
> my nationality. I refused to do it and I showed them
> my invitations of
> the Festivals. They threatened to put me in the jail
> if I would not do
> the finger-printing. I asked for an interpreter and
> to call. They
> refused. Then, they chained me like the medieval
> prisoners and put me
> in a police patrol and took me to another part
> of the airport.
> There were many people, women and men from
> different countries. They
> passed me to new police men. They chained my feet
> and locked my chain
> to the others,
> all locked to a very dirty bench. For 10 hours, no
> questions and
> answers, I was forced to sit on that bench,
> pressed to the others. I
> could not move. I was suffering from an old illness,
> however, nobody
> noticed. Again, I requested them to let me call
> someone in New
> York, but they refused.
> They not only ignored my request but also the
> request of a boy from
> Sri Lanka who wanted to call his mom. Everybody
> was moved by the
> crying of the boy, people from Mexico, Peru,
> Eastern Europe, India,
> Pakistan, Bangladesh and... I was thinking that any
> country has its own
> law but I could not just understand those inhuman
> acts.
>
> At last, I saw the next morning. Another police
> man came to me and
> said that they have to take my photograph. I said
> never. And I showed
> them my personal photos. They said no and that they
> have to take my
> photo (in the way the criminals are taken) and to do
> the
> finger-printing. I refused. An
> hour later, two other guys came to me and
> threatened me to do the
> finger-printing and photography by computer and
> again I refused and I
> asked for a phone. At last, they accepted and I
> could call Dr.
> Jamsheed Akrami, the Iranian film professor of
> Columbia University, and
> I explained to him the whole story. I requested
> him to convince
> them and as he knows me well, I am not a guy to do
> what they were
> looking for.
>
> Two hours later, a police man came to me and took my
> personal photo.
> They chained me again and took me to a plane, a
> plane that was going
> back to Hong Kong.
>
> In the plane and from my window, I could see New
> York. I knew my film,
> The Circle, was released there for two days and I
> was told the film
> was very well received too. However, the audiences
> would understand my
> film better if they could know that the director of
> the film was
> chained at the same time. They would accept my
> beliefs that the circles
> of human limits do exist in any part of this world
> but with different
> ratios.
>
> I saw the Statue of Liberty in the waters and I
> unconsciously smiled. I
> tried to draw the curtain and there were scars of
> the chain on my hand.
> I could not stand the other travelers gazing at me
> and I just wanted
> to stand up and cry that I'm not a thief! I'm not
> a murderer! I'm not
> a drug dealer! I... I am just an Iranian, a
> filmmaker. But how I could
> tell this, in what language? In Chinese, Japanese
> or to the mother
> lanngues of those people from Mexico, Peru, Russia,
> India, Pakistan,
> Bangladesh... or in the language of that young
> boy from Sri Lanka?
> Really, in what language?
>
> I had not slept for 16 hours and I had to spend
> another 15 hours on my
> way back to Hong Kong. It was just a torture among
> all these watching
> eyes. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. But I
> could not. I could
> just see the images of those sleepless women and
> men who were still
> chained.
>
> Jafar Panahi
>
>
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