Persian Realm

BERLIN – Isabella Rossellini turned the Berlin Film Festival's opening night gala into a public condemnation of the Iranian regime when she read aloud from a letter by director Jafar Panahi,written from his prison cell in Tehran. (See Related Article: Isabella Rossellini Reads Prison Letter From Jafar Panahiat Berlin Fest's Opening Night Gala (Berlin) )

Jafar Panahi, open letter to Berlin Film Festival.10 Feb 2011. Berlin - Germany:

Panahi, who was to be a member of the Berlin Festival jury this year, was sentenced to six years in prison and banned for making films for 20 years for the crime ofmaking a movie in Iran without official government sanction.
 
"The world of the filmmaker is marked by the inter play between reality and dreams,"read Rossellini, the president of the jury in Berlin this year.

"Thereality is they have deprived me of thinking and writing for twenty years, but they can not keep me from dreaming that in twenty years inquisition and intimidation will be replaced by freedom and free thinking.They have condemned me to twenty years of silence. Yet in my dreams, I scream for a time when we can tolerate each other, respect each other's opinions, and live for eachother."

The full text of Panahi's letter – inEnglish and Farsi -can be read here.

"We realize reading this here could make things worse for Jafar but we spoke with him and he definitely wanted us todo this," said Berlin Festival director Dieter Kosslick."These might be the last words we hear from him (for a long time)."

Jafar Panahi - Berlinale Opening 2011:

The Berlin crowd – including the stars of Berlin's opening night film True Grit– Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld,Josh Brolin and filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen -- gavea standing ovation in Panahi's honor. On stage was an empty white chair bearing the director's name.

Persian Tribute Song to Casablanca Starring Ingrid Bergman ( Isabella Rosselini's Mother) and Humphry Bogart:

Casablanca- I go to the cafe every night - Hayedeh:

German Culture Minister Bernd Neumann,who officially opened the festival, joined in the condemnation of theIranian regime.

"An attack on a filmmaker's freedom isan attack onthe very basis of freedom itself," Neumann said.

The Berlin Festival is turning this year's event into a two-week protest against thejailing of Panahi and his director colleague Mohammad Rasoulof, who received the same prison sentence. The festival will screen a series of Panahi's films, starting Friday with Offside, which won the Silver Bearin Berlin in 2006.