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PARIS, May 26, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi was given a
hero's welcome by supporters on his return to Tehran on Monday after winning
the top prize at the Cannes film festival, footage posted on social media
showed.

After being banned from leaving Iran for years, forced to make films
underground and enduring spells in prison, Panahi attended the French
festival in person and sensationally walked away with the Palme d'Or for his
latest movie, "It Was Just an Accident".

With some fans concerned that Panahi could face trouble on his return to
Iran, he arrived without incident at Tehran's main international airport,
named after the founder of the 1979 Islamic revolution Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini, in the early hours of Monday.

"He arrived in Tehran early this morning" and "has returned home," French
film producer Philippe Martin told AFP, citing his entourage.

"He has even learned that he has obtained a visa to go to a festival in
Sydney in about ten days' time," he said.

Panahi was cheered by supporters waiting in the public area as he descended
the escalator from passport control to baggage collection, footage posted by
the Dadban legal monitor showed on social media.

One person could be heard shouting "Woman. Life. Freedom!" -- the slogan of
the 2022-2023 protest movement that shook the Iranian authorities.

On exiting, he was greeted by around a dozen supporters who had stayed up to
welcome him, according to footage posted on Instagram by the Iranian director
Mehdi Naderi and broadcast by the Iran International Channel, which is based
outside Iran.

Smiling broadly and waving, he was cheered, applauded, hugged and presented
with flowers. "Fresh blood in the veins of Iranian independent cinema,"
Naderi wrote.
- 'Gesture of resistance' -

The warm welcome at the airport contrasted with the lukewarm reaction from
Iranian state media and officials to the first Palme d'Or for an Iranian
filmmaker since "The Taste of Cherry" by the late Abbas Kiarostami in 1997.

While evoked by state media including the IRNA news agency, Panahi's triumph
has received only thin coverage inside Iran and has also sparked a diplomatic
row with France.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called his victory "a gesture of
resistance against the Iranian regime's oppression" in a post on X, prompting
Tehran to summon France's charge d'affaires to protest the "insulting"
comments.

"I am not an art expert, but we believe that artistic events and art in
general should not be exploited to pursue political objectives," said foreign
ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei.

The film is politically charged, showing five Iranians confronting a man they
believe tortured them in prison, a story inspired by Panahi's own time in
detention.

After winning the prize, Panahi made a call for freedom in Iran. "Let's set
aside all problems, all differences. What matters most right now is our
country and the freedom of our country."