closed curtain
closed curtain v. o. st ang: summary, production year, showtimes, casting about closed curtain v. o. st ang
a scene from jafar panahi' s' closed curtain.' (berlin film festival )
closed curtain, by jafar panahi, was created despite its director’s house arrest in iran .
my cinema selection: closed curtain. all showtimes for closed curtain. find the latest movies in cinema in luxembourg, thionville, metz, trier, arlon. program your movie night on cinéma luxweb
closed curtain, opening on wednesday, stars kambuzia partovi as a writer in hiding with his dog .
looking for movie tickets? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing closed curtain near you .
jafar panahi' s closed curtain showcases the difficulties of making art and being an artist in a troubled world .
a closed curtain doesn' t mean the production is over... the curtain has to close to set up for the next scene... get ready !
closed curtain is the most opaque and sombre of the pictures to have emerged so far from panahi' s confinement .
“closed curtain” starts as one type of movie and turns into something else. what was the genesis of this idea ?
“closed curtain” can be read on several levels, not a few of them suggest the film is a cautious cry for help .
boy and writer (director / actor kabozia partovi) sit and reflect on life in
closed curtain .
( celluloid dreams )
' closed curtain'. a screenplay so darn good i' m still smiling ear to ear. personal, existential genius by panahi !
real talk kim on twitter :
a closed curtain doesn' t mean the production is over... the curtain has to close to set up for the next scene... get ready !
unlike “this is not a film, ” “closed curtain, ” now screening at the digital gym, is a darker, less linear piece .
we’re still waiting for the official scoop. beat us to the news by messaging closed curtain llc to learn specifics about their style and services .
a closed curtain doesn' t mean the production is over... the curtain has to close to set up for the next scene... . get ready! | pinterest | head tables, head tabl…
the co - director and star of iranian dissident film - maker jafar panahi' s berlin prizewinner closed curtain have had their passports confiscated by officials .
closed curtain enfolds its politics within what i believe will go down as one of cinema' s finest, most complex acts of self - portraiture .
i don’t know. it’s just a heartbreaking situation. see closed curtain if you can – or his others. offside is a ton of fun !
iranian director jafar panahi is under house arrest but, a testament to his ingenuity, closed curtain is the second in a trilogy of films shot clandestinely .
kambuzia partovi, a co - director of “closed curtain, ” is a writer at a seaside villa with his dog, boy, dealing with unwelcome guests .
closed curtain
is richly allegorical, but the film succeeds even more as an exiled artist' s reassurance that the law can' t stamp out art .
we don‘t know closed curtain llc ‘s story by heart, but we can assure you it‘s pretty awesome. message them to get to know more about their business .
ragam theatre music - - curtain raiser - - thrissur - - nisha rapheal. wmv
the response to “closed curtain” has been interesting. while it has puzzled some critics, the film has won wide acclaim in festivals throughout europe and the u. s .
unfortunately, closed curtain also indicates there' s only so much an artist can say about his own oppression before he winds up in a creative cul - de - sac .
“closed curtain” begins with a man (kamboziya partovi, the credited co - director) who’s gone into hiding with his dog after the government bans the animals from the streets .
closed curtain
is now playing at the digital gym on el cajon boulevard. it screens thursday, july 24, at 7 pm. please see their website for more information .
i always keep my curtains closed. these blackout drapes are great for watching movies at any hour .
“closed curtain” is one of the most important movies out right now – because of all of the things you just said in your comment. it’s not a representation of a struggle – it is the struggle .
“closed curtain” is an odd film. unlike most of panahi’s films, it may be difficult to follow the allegory that floats just below the surface like seaweed without some background in iranian film and panahi’s current situation
to an artist like panahi, self - expression is like the air we breath, and closed curtain finds himself gasping just above the water. and yet jafari panahi lives. he continues to create, despite great political odds, and he makes this creative process the subject of his films. and as the contemplative bookends of closed curtain show, panahi will not let his situation silence him. he remains defiant despite his despair .
yes, a huge burden. and one he probably had no idea he would have to carry when he started making movies. going after cacciato, closed curtain on the list. manhunt is actually on my dvr .
a version of this review was published during the 2013 berlin film festival. “closed curtain” opens at new york’s film forum tomorrow and will expand to other cities in the u. s. and canada in the coming weeks .
“we’re disappointed too. with consternation we see the curtain closed, the plot unended. [ … ] there must, there must, be some end that would fit. ladies and gentlemen, help us look for it! ”
“closed curtain” contrasts with earlier panahi films such as the exuberant “offside, ” a movie following girls who disguise themselves as boys to sneak into a football match in tehran. it won berlin’s runner - up silver bear in 2006 .
those twisty, fecund films form bookends to the less digestible closed curtain. a forbidding narrative exercise, the film intersperses moment of great humour and power with indulgent follies that will strain the patience of all but the most resilient viewers .
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but it wasn’t his last: next week, variance films will release “ closed curtain, ” which renders the literal frustrations of “this is not a film” in abstract terms. the movie begins with the story of a criminal on the lam with his trusty canine and taking refuge in a large home by the sea, where he encounters two other desperate characters. but eventually panahi himself enters the scene, contemplating his story from afar and eventually overtaking it, quietly turning “closed curtain” into a poetic meditation of his commitment to filmmaking against impossible odds. shot within the constraints of the director’s vacation home, “closed curtain” is informed by the limitations placed on its maker, but also a remarkable approach to defying them .
following the condemnation of jafar panahi' s
closed curtain
and its reception at the berlin film festival, iranian government officials have seized the passports of the film' s co - director, kambuzia partovi, and actor maryam moghadam .
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pardé (closed curtain, 2013), by jafar panahi and kambuzia partovi, is an irresolute allegory. its basis is a set of exaggerated metaphors. the camera remains imprisoned within panahi' s beach house, while the cryptic narrative unfolds .
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in his printed statement, panahi wrote that “' closed curtain' uses shifting genres and stories within stories to highlight why filmmaking is a necessity in a filmmaker’s life: it is the imperative need to show the reality of the world we live in. ”
“it’s difficult to work, but not being able to work is even more difficult, and especially at the height of your career, ” said kamboziya partovi, who co - directed and starred in “closed curtain, ” panahi’s new work that premiered tuesday at the berlinale .
closed curtain is a devastating experience when you are aware of panahi’s reality and yet it is also a loud clarion call declaring his freedom. why are we here on this earth? if we are artists, then we must make our art. limitations have been placed on panahi, limitations that would crush the majority of people. he has not been crushed, although one can only imagine the toll placed on his psyche and soul by his situation. there are moments in closed curtain that are as bleak, personally, as anything i have ever seen .
there is a lot of expectation and anticipation going into the critically acclaimed “closed curtain”. when you add the novelty of being the closing film of 37th hong kong international film festival 2013 and a full house cinema, everything is essentially skyrocketed. however, “closed curtain” not only disappoint, but is rarely engaging, borderline snooze like and ultimately insignificant. i am a big fan of slow burn and art house cinema, but this film goes too far and the result is an extremely personal film for banned iranian director jafar panahi, that can hardly relate to the audience .
our guests really enjoyed the photo booth! there were so many props for them to choose from! i love the fact that the photos were immediately made available to our guests through text, as well as on closed curtain' s website. and our photo album was so beautiful !
since being banned from making films by the iranian government four years ago, director jafar panahi has produced two works of artful defiance. the latter of the two, the self - reflexive, semi - confessional drama
closed curtain ,
finds panahi weary yet resourceful under severe creative constraints .
there are multiple levels it all works (and that is often the case with iranian film, where one cannot be too direct). the “closed curtain” of the title refers to the practical desires of iranian citizens to have some privacy in their own damn homes. the “closed curtain” is also indicative of fear of the outside world, where you are not allowed to have a dog as a pet, and so the gentleman we see has gone into hiding to keep his beloved dog safe. the “closed curtain” could also be seen, though, as an ominous reminder that panahi’s life as an artist may very well be coming to a close. that the curtain is about to fall on his career. i couldn’t get away from that thought as i watched the film. is this a good - bye? is this panahi taking a final bow before disappearing? please, god, no. but how long can he go on? how long can this standoff remain? how long will the authorities tolerate his rebellion? what is going to happen to him ?
what we are seeing is an artist grappling directly with his own reality. i mean, artists do that all the time. personal work is personal work. but if you didn’t know that closed curtain was being filmed despite the ban, what would it look like? if you didn’t know that this was a film made by a man whose livelihood and artistic expression has been denied him (for all intents and purposes for good: he’s 50 years old. a 20 - year ban is practically a death sentence), what would you think of closed curtain? the woman sitting behind me was openly and sometimes loudly confused .
“closed curtain” is co - directed by panahi and his fellow iranian filmmaker and longtime friend, kamboziya partovi. panahi, who has won awards at several major film festivals in the past, was sentenced to house arrest and a 20 - year ban on filmmaking in 2010 after being convicted of “making propaganda” against iran’s ruling system .
while “closed curtain” leaves audiences without the satisfaction of a narrative ending, it also reminds us of how much is at stake for everyone involved in the making of this film. indeed, in the film, suicide is discussed often in reference to moghadam’s character, and both she and panahi are seen walking into the sea at one point .
britain evacuated all diplomatic staff for their own safety and closed its embassy in tehran, and france, germany, italy and the netherlands all withdrew their ambassadors in protest .
in a certain way, the closed curtains represent an interrupted spectacle, like a theater whose curtains are kept closed, with no confrontation against the prohibition imposed by censorship. in this sense, when melika takes down the curtains and throw them on the ground, the film is proposing a metaphor for the continuity of spectacle, despite the power of censorship .
once the house becomes a metaphor for the mind, the english title closed curtain takes a thought - provoking polissemy. curtains are literally what allows the writer to try to close himself, as well as he dog, to the world. in the metaphorical drift of the symbology which goes through the film narrative, curtains become allegorical signs whose dramatic itinerary is invested with political meanings .
it is impossible to watch this is not a film and closed curtain and not be in awe of everyone who agrees to be onscreen (and behind the camera) to make it happen. it is also impossible to watch these films and not be destroyed emotionally. i was destroyed by this is not a film, which i saw first at a press screening at the new york film festival. i was sitting with my friend keith, and when the credits rolled (all of the credits were blank, to protect the small skeleton crew involved), i burst into tears, and keith sat with me, in tears himself, saying, “so so good. ” and i was destroyed by closed curtain, which i saw yesterday at the cinema village .
all in all, “closed curtain” is easily one of the most over - hyped film of the festival and definitely unworthy of being a closing film. sure, there may be obvious hints and notions of messages about the iranian government, but a message alone does not make a movie. in fact, by the time the old man appears on screen again in the final moments, the audience just cannot wait for the film to finish as the directors jafar panahi and kambuzia partovi again indulge into their own slowness without reason. i wouldn’t call this a bad film by all means, but one thing is definite, it will never be worthy of its critical acclaimed. shoot me all you like, this “closed curtain” just isn’t my cup of tea. (neo 2013 )
there is more that we need to know to process closed curtain, the latest film from jafar panahi, the talented iranian director who recently was imprisoned and given a 20 - year ban on making films because he was accused of developing a film about the green movement that was critical of the current regime in iran. panahi’s troubles made headlines worldwide. you can read some background here. i’ve written about panahi a lot. he is one of my favorite directors and his situation has been heartbreaking, and an outrage. despite the ban, he has continued to make films, amazingly, heroically, two since the ban came down, this is not a film (which was smuggled out of iran on a zip drive buried within a cake) and now closed curtain .
the german government petitioned the iranian government that panahi be allowed to travel to berlin for the premier of
closed curtain. ” it was denied, but panahi was visible in other ways at the festival. outside the berlinale’s palast cinema, a group from the independent peace film prize brought a life - size cutout of panahi. a sign on it read: “i ought to be here. ”
closed curtain is a 2013 iranian drama film by jafar panahi and kambuzia partovi. it premiered at the 63rd berlin international film festival on february 12, 2013 where panahi won the silver bear for best script. it was shot secretly at panahi’s own beachfront villa on the caspian sea. panahi stated that he began shooting the film in a state of melancholy but managed to recover by the film’s completion .
a noticeably bigger production than “this is not a film, ” beautifully composed and patiently told within the confines of yet another restrictive set, “closed curtain” rigorously translates the literal despair of “this is not a film” into pure symbolism. though technically co - directed by partovi, panahi’s central role in the movie (in addition to his editing credit) make it evident that this is his sorrowful tale alone .
iran' s authorities berated berlin organisers for rewarding panahi, the celebrated director of the white balloon and offside, earlier this month. closed curtain is the second movie he has made (following 2011' s this is not a film) since his government ban .
making these films is illegal ,
said iranian cinema chief and deputy culture minister javad shamaqdari, according to the isna news agency .
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the secluded house near the sea seems an idyllic setting for closed curtain, the film’s first and third act being largely made up of a lengthy static shot of the seascape view from the villa’s largest window, lasting approximately 4 minutes in length. with the inclusion of dialog only occurring nearly 17 minutes (and 45 seconds to be precise) into the film, quickly turning full circle in a largely unmoving plot .
i cannot imagine what it is like for this man to continue to try to work under these conditions. every time he picks up a camera he puts his life in danger. and yet he continues to do so. what he was able to accomplish in closed curtain, filming in secret, with people who are probably now in trouble for appearing in it, represents the best of who we are, as a people .
panahi explored similar ground in his 2012 feature this is not a film — both works explore the artistic possibilities and limitations available within the confines of the director’s domestic space—though closed curtain feels much more stifled, somber and pessimistic. the characters he has half - created disappear before our eyes, and their absence shows how little of the world outside panahi has to work against. once a social realist, panahi’s eye has been forced inward .
“closed curtain” follows an unnamed writer (partovi) as he sequesters himself in a seaside bungalow. at the start of the movie he unpacks a prized possession - - a small and affectionate dog. the dog is the one on the run, we learn, declared unclean and sentenced to extermination. so the writer builds an interior life for the two of them, behind locked safety gates, tightly pulled curtains and layers of dark cloth .
acclaimed iranian filmmaker jafar panahi bravely defies his 20 - year ban on filmmaking yet again with closed curtain. in a secluded house by the sea with the curtains shut, a screenwriter hides from the world with only his dog as company. the tranquility is abruptly broken one night by the arrival of a young woman fleeing from the authorities. refusing to leave, she takes refuge in the house. but come dawn, another unexpected presence will change everything .
even so, there’s an uneasy quality to watching another of panahi’s beautiful movies, since there’s no telling how much longer he can keep it up. but the director has certainly embraced the challenge, even managing to pick up the phone for an interview with indiewire this week. sounding alternately weary and determined, panahi spoke through a translator as he explained the genesis of “closed curtain” and why he continues to make movies in spite of the risks at hand .
diehard panahi fans will rejoice at the filmmaker’s commitment to expressing his ideas despite the tremendous risk, but “closed curtain” requires immense patience and shows its seams at every step of the way. less a finished movie than a cry for help, its enigmatic trajectory allows viewers to empathize with panahi exclusively through his ideas. “there’s more to life than work, ” a visiting colleague tells him. “yes, ” he mutters in reply, “but these things are foreign to me. ”
panahi himself arrives later, though his relationship to the screenwriter is unclear: is the latter a product of the former’s imagination? are they aware of their side - by - side presences? who’s the specter and what’s real? closed curtain repeatedly worries and rearranges these relationships and ambiguities. it’s both dazzling and suffocating: as it becomes clear that what’s going on could be infinitely / indefinitely tweaked, it’s hard not to want panahi to wrap it up and settle on a takeaway .
i don' t want any trouble .
so says the unnamed apparent protagonist of closed curtain (pardé). played by kambuzia partovi - - who co - directs the film with jafar panahi - - this fellow is doing his best to quell the chaos that' s just walked into the house. but as soon as he makes this announcement to the intruders melika (maryam moqadam) and reza (hadi saeedi), you know that he' s got just that, trouble .
at first, “closed curtain” takes the form of a more conventional narrative, following the experiences of an apparent man on the lam (filmmaker and panahi screenwriter kamboziya partovi), who arrives at an isolated beach house and hides himself from the world. two other refugees come and go before panahi himself quietly becomes a part of the story while hovering outside of it, his characters commenting on his loose control over their existence. even as they fade from view, however, the director can’t shake them .
closed curtain (also known as parde) tells the tale of a group of people trapped in a house by a lake, a predicament critics have suggested represents a thinly veiled critique of the repression suffered in iran by panahi and other artists. both its directors also appear in front of the camera. the film, now without either of its main creators nor its central star, is due to continue its festival run next month with an appearance as the closing film of the hong kong film festival .
perhaps, with this in mind, the film appears more interesting from the viewpoint of the background of the film’s directors then the actual finished film, the film appearing more as a cry for help by panahi then an expertly crafted film, in some places heavy handed. in many instances breaking the fourth wall, coupled with the directors’ somewhat unnecessary on - screen presence, it seems that closed curtain is above anything else an expression of panahi’s personal odyssey than demanding any critical appreciation from the larger film market .
so. basically if you go into closed curtain not knowing all of this, it might be a confounding and puzzling and frustrating experience. so yes, i would suggest educating yourself, and i would also suggest seeing the film. i would suggest seeing all of panahi’s films, pre - and - post ban. he’s marvelous. and here he is, making a movie he is not supposed to be making, about a man hiding out from the regime because he wants to keep his dog safe …
a noticeably bigger production than “this is not a film, ” beautifully composed and patiently told within the confines of yet another restrictive set, “closed curtain” rigorously translates the literal despair of “this is not a film” into pure symbolism. though technically co - directed by partovi — whose own passport was revoked after his involvement with this production, as was one of his co - star’s — panahi’s central role in the movie (in addition to his editing credit) make it evident that this is his sorrowful tale alone .
metaphor and allegory cross the film' s plot and entail a symbolic regime of interpretation. yet, its meaning is not closed and its senses are not fully revealed. the spectator faces the impossible task of deciphering the irresolute code which guides the film .
at first, “closed curtain” takes the form of a more conventional narrative, following the experiences of an apparent man on the lam (filmmaker and panahi screenwriter kamboziya partovi), who arrives at an isolated beach house (actually panahi’s vacation home) and hides himself from the world. two other refugees come and go before panahi himself quietly becomes a part of the story while hovering outside of it, his characters commenting on his loose control over their existence. even as they fade from view, however, the director can’t shake them .
closed curtain official trailer (2015) jafar panahi movie hd an unnamed screenwriter (kambozia partovi) arrives at a secluded three - story villa on the caspian sea. he secretly brings along his pet dog named
boy
. dogs are considered unclean under islamic rule and the writer intends to hide
boy
from authorities as he tries to get some writing done. the writer shaves his head to disguise his identity and covers all the windows in the villa with black, opaque material. releasing into uk cinemas 4th september 2015 .
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he may even want it. after all, he' s participating in a film being made by an artist whom the government of iran has banned from filmmaking for 20 years. (and indeed, once closed curtain was completed and smuggled to the 2013 berlinale, where it won the silver bear, both partovi and moqadam had their passports revoked .) still, his declaration of reluctance sets in motion a series of events that resemble a plot, but more effectively showcase the difficulties of making art and being an artist in a troubled world .
once the curtains come down, panahi abruptly steps into the scene, gazing wistfully at posters of his earlier movies that dot the walls. clearly, he can’t keep his career away. without overstating that revelation beyond the transparent metaphor of the title, the arbitrariness of the preceding hour takes on new meaning. essentially a sequel in the saga of panahi’s inhibited career, “closed curtain” finds him in a much darker state of mind than before, at one point contemplating suicide as “the only way out”; he even includes a fantasy sequence envisioning that possibility .
dogs have been banned as pets in iran, providing the starting premise for jafar panahi’s closed curtain. a screenwriter (kambozia partovi, also the co - director) has a dog smuggled into his seaside villa by friends. once the animal’s inside, the man systematically draws the curtains over windows on all three floors. the opening of jafar panahi’s closed curtain fictionalizes the necessary circumstances of its production: working in secret, the director was forced to draw the curtains for as much of the shoot as possible to make sure no one could see what was going on inside. there are echoes of recent scenes in tsai ming - liang’s face and ursula maier’s home — both films whose subjects methodically use tape to black out windows, an action meant to seal out a presumably threatening world. here, the self - imposed isolation has a different intent: in order for an indoor theater to flourish, curtains reluctantly have to be drawn to keep the outside world outside, and the audience (along with the camera, which can’t go beyond the porch) is trapped in the theater along with the players .
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filmed in panahi’s caspian sea vacation home ,
closed curtain
at first seems a very different kind of film. a middle - aged writer (partovi) arrives at a seaside villa bearing luggage, and immediately begins covering the house’s many picture windows with heavy black curtains. one of his bags contains the reason for his secrecy: his dog boy (played by a personable pooch who gives the best canine performance in recent memory), a pet the man is determined to keep hidden from the authorities who have declared dogs “impure” in islamic law and therefore subject to confiscation and slaughter .
most films require little or no knowledge on the viewer’s part of the filmmaker’s likeness or personal history. but folks who walk into “closed curtain” unfamiliar with iranian director jafar panahi and his recent travails are sure to find themselves utterly baffled and confounded. a kind of “film a clef, ” the movie (co - credited to kambozia partovi) is essentially a psychological self - portrait that depends on the viewer’s knowledge of panahi’s past work and the strange limbo he has existed in since the iranian government banned him from working for 20 years—and then tacitly allowed him to go on making films “in secret. ”
some of that mixture of defiance and whimsy is present in “closed curtain, ” but it is also edged with melancholy and fatigue. when mr. panahi, who turns 54 this week, does show up on screen — it’s his villa, after all, decorated with european posters advertising his films — he looks wearier and older than he did in “this is not a film, ” suggesting that several years of legal struggle and professional limbo have taken a toll. but his creative intelligence is undimmed and may even be thriving under the constraints of having to work in secret with a tiny crew .
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about this time you expect panahi himself to make an appearance, and he doesn’t disappoint. the “closed curtain” opens to reveal a mirrored box. as in “this is not a film, ” panahi alludes to his previous movies. in particular, the opening and closing scenes of this film evoke those in “crimson gold. ” they are long shots of the outside as seen through a security gate. in “crimson gold, ” the view is of a chaotic street in tehran. here, it is the empty sea. this difference demonstrates what panahi has been deprived of, and what the world has lost because of it .
panahi’s problems came in the aftermath of his 2000 drama the circle which tackled a number of the complicated issues regarding the oppression of women in contemporary iran, a social critique continued in his 2003 drama - thriller crimson gold which resulted in his ban in 2009. despite this however, he continues to make films in secret, closed curtain representing his second film made under these restriction. his latest 2015 film named taxi which won the golden bear at the 2015 berlin film festival will be his third. it should be noted however that since the films release, co - director kambuzia partovi and main actress maryam moqadam have been banned from travelling .
but before it burrows into his problems, “closed curtain” provides a reminder that panahi can still tell a compelling story. starting with a wordless prologue and a lengthy opening shot, panahi draws us into the travails of partovi’s paranoid fugitive, who slinks into the vacant home and unleashes his adorable peppy dog from a duffle bag. a silent greek chorus to the struggles surrounding him, the canine bears witness to his owner’s frantic behavior with a tranquility captured in astute closeups; meanwhile, partovi ventures from one floor to the next, draping each window in black. the task is futile, of course: we can still see him. panahi’s filmmaking continues .
kambuzia partovi flairs well as lead actor and taking up the majority of the screen time. his gandi like appearance helps the film retain attention and even a good 40 minutes as the audience questions and reflect on what he can possibly be doing. however, the moment kambuzia partovi is off the screen, the film falters and eventually fails, as the core and purpose of watching the film seems to be gone. when the best thing in the film is the pouting cute antics of the dog, you know the film lacks character and strength. sometimes, being different and slow doesn’t exactly converts to art house and “closed curtain” feels far too unimportant and uninvolving .
subscribe to trailers: urltoken subscribe to coming soon: urltoken subscribe to indie & film festivals: urltoken like us on facebook: urltoken follow us on twitter: urltoken closed curtain official trailer 1 (2013) - jafar panahi movie hd an unnamed screenwriter (kambozia partovi) arrives at a secluded three - story villa on the caspian sea. he secretly brings along his pet dog named
boy
. dogs are considered unclean under islamic rule and the writer intends to hide
boy
from authorities as he tries to get some writing done. the writer shaves his head to disguise his identity and covers all the windows in the villa with black, opaque material .
‘closed curtain’ touches on similar meta - artistic themes as ‘this is not a film’. panahi once again appears as a version of himself, and his entrance is breathtaking in the way it both shatters and reconfigures the story we thought we were watching. this is the tale of a man – the writer – who lives so completely with his muses and characters that he slips between reality and fantasy without an anchor to hold him. he’s not even necessarily played by the same person from scene to scene: identity is one of this bracing movie’s most malleable facets. the journey is often challenging, but the rewards – heady, emotional, provocative and invigorating – are endless .
with his extraordinary 2011 documentary ‘this is not a film’ iranian director jafar panahi tackled his house arrest under the repressive iranian government. (legend has it that the doc was smuggled out of iran on a hard drive baked in a cake .) now he’s made another masterful, multi - faceted feature under similarly draconian conditions. ‘closed curtain’ begins with an absolutely stunning long shot looking through the barred window of a seaside home. a car pulls up, and two men get out. only one of them (co - director kambuzia partovi) enters the house, where he unzips a bag and lets out his pet dog (a scene - stealer), to scamper around .
this could be the start of a mystery, and that word would not be completely out of place as a description of “closed curtain. ” but the narrative puzzles that might animate a more conventional film — who is this woman? why is she here? what is the writer hiding from? what will happen between them? — soon give way to other, more complicated enigmas. one of these is precisely what kind of movie this is, a question that has special piquancy because jafar panahi, who is credited as a writer and director (with kambuzia partovi, who plays the writer), is under a 20 - year filmmaking ban imposed by the iranian government .
soon a mysterious pair shows up - - a moody young woman (maryam moghadam) with a man who might be her brother. they’re on the run from authorities for participating in a beach party. he leaves her to wait with the writer, but she ends up being more ghost than guest in the closed - up house .
in 2011, shortly after he was banned by the iranian government from making movies for 20 years, jafar panahi pulled off the impossible with “this is not a film, ” a bold, diary - like production shot in the confines of his apartment. given the circumstances, “this is not a film” looked like the only legitimate means that panahi could still manage to produce work. instead, his restless mind has yielded an even more ambitious achievement with the cryptically self - referential “ closed curtain. ” tough to categorize but weighted with meaning, panahi’s latest fascinating defiance of the constraints placed on him illustrates his deep commitment to the art form at all costs — including, perhaps, his own sanity .
berlin announced nine more competition titles today, filling out the official line up for the 63rd berlinale. in addition to the u. s. titles, berlin' s 2013 competition includes new films by oscar winner danis tanovic, french auteur bruno dumont and, perhaps most astoundingly, a new work from imprisoned iranian filmmaker jafar panahi. panahi' s closed curtain, co - directed with cafe transit helmer kambozia partovi, will have its world premiere in berlin, as will tanovic' s an episode in the life of an iron picker and dumont' s biopic camille claudel 1915, which stars juliette binoche as the famed french sculptor with jean - luc vincent playing her brother, the poet and diplomat paul claudel .
for all that could be said to be wrong about this film it still holds an impressive runtime. a quiet film, largely devoid of descriptive dialogue, it is most likely that you won’t rate closed curtains highly, nor will you remember it amidst the huge number of films to be released this summer alone, but any followers of panahi and partovi should not deny that closed curtains represents a return from panahi that is more indulgent then ever, transforming the film into an aggressive political comment on the creative restrictions under which he lives, as well as serving as a symbol of his unrelenting perseverance to battle against them, despite lacking the gallantry that can be seen in the circle and crimson gold .
then again: she might be a figment of his imagination, unless both of them are figments of the directors’. these things might both be true, if the writer is working on a version of the scenario we are watching, and mr. panahi is putting it on film. and yet the director (if that is what he is) seems completely oblivious to the other occupants of his house and too preoccupied with mundane matters (eating lunch, supervising the repair of a broken window) to be making a film. he is not allowed to do that, anyway, and so he allows “closed curtain” to unfold in an intriguing limbo of deniability, subverting both its own existence and its officially mandated nonexistence .
in 2010, the iranian government deemed panahi' s work anti - government propaganda and imposed a 20 - year ban on his filmmaking. panahi, however, carefully circumvented the ban in 2011 with his
this is not a film
( a nod to magritte' s
this is not a pipe
) and followed it with
closed curtain ,
a film about a group of people being persecuted by government officials. the movie, largely considered to be a critique of the iranian government, incensed iranian officials after it won best screenplay at the berlin film festival. iranian cinema chief and deputy culture minister javad shamaqdari said ,
making these films is illegal ,
according to the isna news agency .
we here at closed curtain dare you to find a company with the amount of diverse props that we offer. we have glasses, hats, wigs, boas, signs, masks, head dresses, chains, guns, blow up radios, pop up sharks, stand up celebrities, noses, stick props for every theme and the list goes on and on. you could literally fill a warehouse with the props that we offer and we only use them one time. we buy them in bulk so you don’t ever have to worry about who wore that mask last or used that fake cigar. we are so obsessed with finding new props that it has literally become a daily task in finding new creative ones. it is also one of our favorite things to do .
closed curtain
starts with a writer (kambozia partovi) arriving at a beach house. hidden in his luggage is a dog which the regime in iran is taking a very hard line against. that is depicted by some very graphic news footage, so the writer takes the batteries out of the television so the dog will not be traumatized any more. he also puts up curtains all around the house. that however does not stop siblings reza (hadi saeedi) and melika (maryam moghadam) from knocking on his door while on the run from the authorities. so, while reza looks for a way out, he leaves behind his sister, while warning about her suicidal tendencies .
closed curtain
is proof positive that you can' t keep a good man down or a good director from making movies. and it' s especially impressive considering what jafar panahi has concocted here, a story told on two separate levels of reality, and without an effects shot either. (i mean yes there are sound effects used in order to emulate action just off camera but those don' t really count .) that is done in the most playfully meta way possible to show the iranian authorities and the world at large what kind of movies panahi could make if only he were allowed. except that is exactly the kind of movie he has made, with an emphasis on such iranian taboos as dogs, suicide and unrelated men and women inhabiting the same space. and just remember that it is not showing off if you are this good .
sometimes i' m not sure which type of audience irritates me more, the typically apathetic popcorn - munching, texting and talking blockbuster crowd, or the clueless art film crowd. while waiting for jafar panahi' s latest film closed curtain to begin, somewhere behind me off in the distance, in terms both spatial and divorced from reality, i heard someone tell their friend
you know, this was made at a time when filmmaking was banned ,
to which her friend replied ,
yeah i know, this should be interesting .
i wanted so bad to turn around and correct them, to let them know that filmmaking in general is not banned, that the ban was exclusive to panahi, but the dimming house lights made my decision for me. …
“closed curtain, ” as its title suggests, draws on theater as well as film for inspiration. as soon as he arrives, the writer drapes the window in heavy dark cloth, blocking views of sand, sky and water, and turning the house into a black box stage set. the outside world intrudes first in the form of a television news report about the grisly enforcement of a prohibition on dogs in public — the government has declared them “un - islamic” — that may explain the writer’s worry that his pet will slip out the door. then the woman (maryam moqadam) arrives, and she and the writer begin an awkward, riddling, asymmetrical cohabitation. he wonders who she is and why she is there, while she seems to know quite a lot about him.
closed curtain ( persian : pardeh – پرده ) is a 2013 iranian docufiction film by jafar panahi and kambuzia partovi . it premiered at the 63rd berlin international film festival on february 12 , 2013 where panahi won the silver bear for best script . it was shot secretly at panahi 's own beachfront villa on the caspian sea . panahi stated that he began shooting the film in a state of melancholy but managed to recover by the film 's completion . closed curtain is panahi 's second film since his 20-year ban on filmmaking after 2011 's this is not a film . the film was selected as the closing film of the 2013 hong kong international film festival . 
closed curtain (persian: pardeh – پرده) is a 2013 iranian docufiction film by jafar panahi and kambuzia partovi. it premiered at the 63rd berlin international film festival on february 12, 2013 where panahi won the silver bear for best script. it was shot secretly at panahi's own beachfront villa on the caspian sea. panahi stated that he began shooting the film in a state of melancholy but managed to recover by the film's completion. closed curtain is panahi's second film since his 20-year ban on filmmaking after 2011's this is not a film. the film was selected as the closing film of the 2013 hong kong international film festival.
closed curtain (persian: pardeh – پرده) is a 2013 iranian docufiction film by jafar panahi and kambuzia partovi. it premiered at the 63rd berlin international film festival on february 12, 2013 where panahi won the silver bear for best script. it was shot secretly at panahi's own beachfront villa on the caspian sea. panahi stated that he began shooting the film in a state of melancholy but managed to recover by the film's completion. closed curtain is panahi's second film since his 20-year ban on filmmaking after 2011's this is not a film. the film was selected as the closing film of the 2013 hong kong international film festival.