“No Bears” bears witness to Jafar Panahi’s incisive filmmaking while urging viewers to examine the complex layers of a deceptively simple story: a man oppressed and suppressed by his country, and opens at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center March 10.
Continuing is “One Fine Morning.”
“No Bears” tells the story of one of the world’s great cinematic artists, Jafar Panahi, who has been carefully crafting self-reflexive works about artistic, personal and political freedom for the past three decades, despite his oppression at the hands of the Iranian government. Now, as the international film community vehemently denounces his summer 2022 arrest and continued imprisonment for his vocal support of a fellow artist’s independence, Panahi has gifted us all with a new virtuosic sleight-of-hand. In “No Bears,” as in many of his recent titles, Panahi plays a fictionalized version of himself, in this case relocated to a rural border town to remotely direct a new film in nearby Turkey - the story of which comes to sharply mirror disturbing events that begin to occur around him. As he struggles to complete his film, Panahi finds himself thrust in the middle of a local scandal, confronting the opposing pulls of tradition and progress, city and country, belief and evidence, and the universal desire to reject oppression.
“No Bears” is showing through March 23.
“One Fine Morning” tells the story of Sandra (Lea Seydoux) who is a widowed young mother raising her daughter on her own, while also caring for her sick father (Pascal Greggory). She’s dealing with the loss of the relationship she once had with her father, while she and her mother and sister fight to get him the care he requires. At the same time, Sandra reconnects with Clément (Melvil Poupaud), a friend she hasn’t seen in a while and, although he’s married, their friendship soon blossoms into a passionate affair.
“One Fine Morning” is showing through March 16.
Learn more about the films, including show times and ticket availability.
