From 'The White Balloon' to 'Offside': 8 Jafar Panahi gems you must watch

The Iranian filmmaker is famed for his quietly powerful resistance through films that both endear and enrage. (Compiled by Ashwin Somanath)

The White Balloon (1995)

Panahi's incredible debut film features a 7-year-old girl's quest to buy a goldfish from the market in 90 minutes, offering a subtle commentary on innocence and Iranian society.

Offside (2006)

This humorous, guerilla-style film sees girls sneaking into a football match in Tehran—an actual World Cup qualifier—dressed as boys.

The Mirror (1997)

Again featuring a little girl as the protagonist, this film sees the child try to find her way home. However, it takes on new dimensions when she decides to stop acting mid-film: a bold, metafictional comment on Iranian freedom.

Crimson Gold (2003)

This Abbas Kiarostami-written psychological drama of a man driven to robbery and suicide—played by an actual pizza delivery man—is a searing existential critique of loneliness and class divisions in Iranian society.

The Circle (2000)

This powerfully feminist tale, banned in Iran for its hard-hitting realism, weaves multiple narratives of Iranian women whose stories embody their pitiful place in Iranian society.

This Is Not a Film (2011)

This extremely self-reflexive piece on censorship was shot in Panahi's apartment while under house arrest, smuggled out of Iran on a USB drive hidden inside a cake, and premiered to great acclaim at Cannes.

Rightly named 'Asian Filmmaker of the Year' at the Busan International Film Festival, Panahi's next film, 'It Was Just an Accident', is scheduled to release later in 2025.