January 19, 2011 (Sampurn Wire): The arrangers of Germany's Berlin Film Festival (BFF) will propel the limelight on the injustice being experienced by the imprisoned Iranian film director, Jafar Panahi, by paying a tribute to him at the 2011 event. This tribute will be an expression of dissatisfaction towards the prison term of six years awarded to Panahi by the Iranian judiciary in December as he was found guilty of campaigning detrimentally against the orthodox Iranian administration of President Ahmadinejad and filming in Iran bereft of authorization. However, it is broadly deemed that his imprisonment was a result of his straightforward advocacy of the Iranian oppositions chief, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who is regarded as a reformist.

Panahi has also been debarred from inscribing and creating films for 20 years, as per his solicitors. Panahis judicial troubles in Iran have seized the concentration of Hollywoods powerhouses such as Martin Scorsese, Harvey Weinstein, Paul Haggis and Sean Penn, each of whom has endorsed a movement spearheaded by the Amnesty International (AI), to liberate him and his fellow prisoner, Mohammad Rasoulof, who was also commanded to abide by six years in incarceration.

Now, the executives of BFF are determinedly perpetrating whatever they can to position pressure on the Iranian administration to liberate the duo. Panahi was listed to function as a member of BFFs jury, with the BFF scheduled to occur from February 10 to 20. In a declaration, Berlinale director, Dieter Kosslick, has remarked that the BFF is going to employ every means to complain against this severe verdict.

The tribute to Panahi will be paid at the BFF by exhibiting his critically praised movies and by organizing a panel dialogue on censorship in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Kosslick has vocalized that this dialogue would involve the presence of artists and moviemakers as well as the reasonably eminent Iranian filmmaker, Rafi Pitts. Panahi has triumphed at the Chicago, Cannes and Berlin movie festivals historically.

-- Sampurn Wire