‘No Bears’ portrays two parallel love stories. In both, the lovers are troubled by hidden, inevitable obstacles, the force of superstition and the mechanics of power. Panahi continues his interrogation of authority through cinema with a film about two couples who come up against the social forces around them. 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.

Jafar Panahi (b.1960) is an Iranian film director, screenwriter and film editor. Panahi achieved international recognition with ‘The White Balloon’ (1995) which won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes. Although his films were often banned in his own country, he continued to receive international acclaim. Panahi’s ‘Taxi’ (2015) won the Golden Bear at Berlinale.