In obedience to Chinese censors, the Hainan Island International Film Festival has excluded the Iranian drama “No End” after having accepted it. The Hollywood Reporter reports:
ArtHood Entertainment, which is handling world sales for No End, told The Hollywood Reporter it received a confirmation from the Hainan Island festival on Nov. 19 that the Iranian drama had been picked to run in the main competition at the event. The 2023 Hainan festival runs Dec. 16-22 in the tropical resort city of Sanya in China’s southernmost province.
But this week, the festival has pulled the film, citing “political pressure and censorship laws of the Chinese government,” said ArtHood….
“[We] acknowledge the pressures that festivals under oppressive regimes face and applaud those that are able to maintain high artistic standards despite state censorship,” ArtHood said. “Nevertheless, [we are] disappointed and shocked by the decision of the authorities.”
The Hainan and other Chinese film festivals should be held outside of China. That’s easier said than done. But festival producers should be free to determine what gets shown at their festivals, going only by their own standards, and the Hainan Island International Film Festival is not free to do so by operating in China.
Nader Saeivar, who co-wrote the film with director Jafar Panahi, said in a letter to the organizers of the festival that although he had been eager to attend it, “I prefer not to attend a festival that practices censorship protocols. Such censorship measures have also banned the creation and distribution of many great movies in my home country. Also, the same view of art in my country has imprisoned many filmmakers and freedom seekers, including several female artists. Unfortunately, your festival has the same view of art and practices censorship principles.”
But Saeivar’s complaint about the festival’s policies would have been justified even if the censors had somehow missed the import of Saeivar’s own film. China’s censorship protocols, which the festival organizers are obliged to follow, are not brand-new.
The festival’s website says that HIIFF “is co-hosted by China Media Group and the People’s Government of Hainan Province, under the guidance of the China Film Administration.” In its statement of the rules of submission, the site states in the sixth provision of Article 6 that the festival “has the right to reject any film that does not meet all or part of the above requirements, as well as any film that does not meet China’s laws or related cultural policies.”
“China’s laws or related cultural policies” means China’s oppression and censorship.
No End is the story of Ayaz, an honest, hardworking man who dreams of having a house of his own and invests every penny he makes into the construction of his future home, while comfortably living off the money sent to his mother-in-law by her son, who has been living abroad for many years in exile. When the son is suddenly given permission to return, Ayaz tries to stop it by staging a search of his house to scare him off. His plans work too well: Iran‘s actual secret service catches wind of the search and turns its attention to Ayaz, with disastrous consequences.
YouTube has a brief clip from the film. At Screen Daily, Jonathan Romney argues in his review of “No End” that despite its weaknesses, it “commands attention at a time when Iranian citizens in general, and artists in particular, are facing difficult conditions, with Panahi himself sentenced to six years in prison. All this will surely bring the film some attention after its Busan premiere, not least from festivals with a human rights focus.”
