Jafar Panahi continues to push against the boundaries of the medium with his latest film, involving two parallel love stories and the dire consequences that can bubble up out of seemingly insignificant artistic pursuits.

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Special Presentations

No Bears

Jafar Panahi

Jafar Panahi continues his interrogation of authority through cinema with a film about two couples who come up against the social forces around them. As he has done previously, Panahi plays himself in the film, stationed in a village where he remotely directs a crew shooting a film just miles away, on the other side of the Iranian border in Turkey.

With the help of his assistant director, who visits him nightly to deliver a hard drive full of footage, Panahi builds a story about a couple attempting to secure fake passports so that they can flee to France. At the same time, he becomes unwittingly involved in the politics of the village in which he’s staying. A group of elders pay a visit, asking him to share a photograph he allegedly took of a local couple in a forbidden relationship. When he insists he took no such photo, the village men refuse to believe him; as the drama escalates, it explores the ways in which dire consequences can bubble up out of seemingly insignificant artistic actions.

Through these parallel narrative trajectories, Panahi considers the repercussions for people who participate in his work, willingly or not, in a thoughtful and engaging meta-commentary that fans of his previous films will appreciate. Faced with so many challenges in his homeland, No Bears finds Panahi reflecting on his inability to leave his country, even if it might be as easy as stepping over an invisible line, somewhere on a stony hill, in the dark of night.

JANE SCHOETTLE

Official Selection, 2022 Toronto International Film Festival

Screenings

Sat Sep 10

Scotiabank 11

Press
12:10pm
Mon Sep 12

TIFF Bell Lightbox 6

Press
6:15pm
Wed Sep 14

Royal Alexandra Theatre

Regular
5:00pm
Fri Sep 16

Scotiabank 2

Regular
3:00pm
Sat Sep 17

Scotiabank 14

Regular
1:00pm
Fri Dec 23

TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

Regular
1:30pm
Fri Dec 23

TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

Regular
4:00pm
Fri Dec 23

TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

Regular
6:30pm
Fri Dec 23

TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

Regular
9:00pm
Sat Dec 24

TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

Regular
4:30pm
Sat Dec 24

TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

Regular
7:15pm
Sat Dec 24

TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

Regular
9:45pm
Sun Dec 25

TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

Regular
1:00pm
Sun Dec 25

TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

Regular
3:30pm
Sun Dec 25

TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

Regular
7:00pm
Sun Dec 25

TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

Regular
9:30pm
Sun Dec 25

TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

Regular
9:30pm
Mon Dec 26

TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

Regular
5:15pm
Mon Dec 26

TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

Regular
7:45pm
Tue Dec 27

TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

Regular
6:30pm
Wed Dec 28

TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

Regular
12:45pm
Wed Dec 28

TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

Regular
3:15pm
Wed Dec 28

TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

Regular
6:30pm
Thu Dec 29

TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

Regular
1:00pm
Thu Dec 29

TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

Regular
3:30pm
Thu Dec 29

TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

Regular
6:25pm
Thu Dec 29

TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

Regular
9:50pm
Fri Dec 30

TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

Regular
1:15pm
Fri Dec 30

TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

Regular
4:00pm
Fri Dec 30

TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

Regular
6:30pm
Fri Dec 30

TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

Regular
9:15pm
Sat Dec 31

TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

Regular
1:15pm
Sat Dec 31

TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

Regular
3:45pm
Sat Dec 31

TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

Regular
7:00pm
Sat Dec 31

TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

Regular
9:45pm
Sun Jan 01

TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

Regular
1:00pm
Sun Jan 01

TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

Regular
4:30pm
Sun Jan 01

TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

Regular
7:00pm
Sun Jan 01

TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

Regular
9:35pm
Mon Jan 02

TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

Regular
6:00pm
Mon Jan 02

TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

Regular
8:30pm
Tue Jan 03

TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

Regular
6:45pm
Wed Jan 04

TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

Regular
2:00pm
Wed Jan 04

TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

Regular
4:30pm
Wed Jan 04

TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

Regular
7:05pm
Wed Jan 04

TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

Regular
8:45pm
Thu Jan 05

TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

Regular
1:15pm
Thu Jan 05

TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

Regular
3:45pm
Thu Jan 05

TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

Regular
7:15pm
Thu Jan 05

TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

Regular
9:45pm
Fri Jan 13

TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

Regular
4:00pm
Fri Jan 13

TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

Regular
4:00pm
Sat Jan 14

TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

Regular
7:25pm
Sun Jan 15

TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

Regular
4:15pm
Tue Jan 17

TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

Regular
5:00pm
Wed Jan 18

TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

Regular
7:15pm
Thu Jan 19

TIFF Bell Lightbox 5

Regular
1:00pm