As geopolitical tensions in and around Iran escalate — including ongoing disputes with the U.S. — Iranians have arrived in Berlin grappling with fear and uncertainty, bolstered by the country’s largest nationwide protests since 2022’s “Woman, Life, Freedom” (WLF) movement.
On Dec. 28, protests erupted in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar over a deepening economic crisis marked by soaring inflation and the sharp collapse of the Iranian currency and spread rapidly nationwide. Soon after, Iranian authorities responded with an internet shutdown as a tactic to conceal the true scale of the police brutality, resulting in thousands of deaths, injuries and mass arrests of the protestors.
Against this backdrop, A-list film festivals have become vital platforms for Iranian cinema as a form of cultural resistance. Case in point: Iranian writer-director Mahnaz Mohammadi will world premiere her new film Roya in the Panorama program of the Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday.
The 2026 Berlinale also saw some of the country’s top creatives hitting the fest’s opening night gala carpet, wielding “Free Iran” signage.
For the third consecutive year since the WLF movement took hold of Iran, filmmakers and independent producers have come to the Berlinale hoping to shed light on indie and underground films made inside Iran and abroad. This year’s cohort of activists, while quieter than in the past as a result of the ongoing hostilities, is striving to amplify the voices suppressed and introduce emerging artists to a wider audience.
On Friday, the Iranian Independent Filmmakers Association (IIFMA) — set up shortly after the WLF movement — held a performance, initially intended to be a protest. It involved having volunteers lie flat on the ground at Potsdamer Platz. “It’s just here to emphasize the Iranian corpses [left] alone on the streets after the [January 2026] protests,” begins IIFMA editor-in-chief Amirata Joolaee about the staged demonstration. “Because most people were banned. They were restricted. They couldn’t go there to collect their own beloved ones’ corpses.”
For Joolaee, the group’s purpose has evolved alongside the country’s turmoil, shifting from documentation to defiance: “We started our job three years ago, after the Iranian Woman, Life, Freedom movement, and we tried to reflect the voices of Iranian protesters and filmmakers, mostly living in exile,” he tells THR. “Then, due to some political reasons, we had to change our [approach] after recent protests in Iran. More than 15,000 innocent, defenseless people were killed during the protests. So now, all we can do as part of the Iranian cinematic community is to reflect their voices in this industry during the Berlinale, which is, hopefully, a political festival.”
In the hours before the IIFMA’s demonstration at the Berlinale, they hosted a panel, which started with a round of applause to honor the names of those killed and detained Iranian artists, accompanied by video footage recorded by protestors in Iran. Among the films drawing particular attention is the final documentary from Bektash Abtin, the Iranian poet, artist and director who was arrested and imprisoned on charges of anti-government propaganda. His last work will also premiere Friday.
“Abtin, we all know that he was detained, imprisoned, and passed away in prison,” says Iranian film critic Amir Pouria. “He was a very nice guy and a very smart artist — finding some outcast, strange characters, always with a touch of humor. His films are funny but really tragic at the same time. And this one is like that,” he adds about the doc, Are You Mostafa?, edited and finished after Abtin’s death. “And the relationship between Bektash and the character is amazing. I think the very nice thing about the movie is that you don’t feel him as a dead artist.”
In fact, two Iranian filmmakers — Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha of My Favourite Cake, which won two major awards at the 2024 Berlinale, the FIPRESCI Prize and Prize of the Ecumenical Jury — remain detained in Iran.
Mahshid Bozorgnia, a film critic from Iran who lives and works with the IIFMA from California, talked to THR about the group’s presence at the EFM and feeling support from the Berlinale: “After the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, filmmakers felt the need to address that and say, ‘Okay, Iranian women are not wearing a hijab, even on the street.’ And if Iranian cinema wants to be behind society, they have to start making films that show the true face of Iranian women. My Favorite Cake is a good example of that.”
She adds that the screening of Abtin’s feature is an independent event, separate from the Berlin Film Fest, though Bozorgnia says the fest has “always been supportive” of their cause. “They are very, very supportive, even in terms of invitation, in terms of giving awareness. They don’t mind doing that. They always give us free marketing for our events and promote our events. They certainly believe in our cause. And we love that.”
However, Pouria believes the Berlinale should be doing more to show support for the IIFMA. “As far as I know, they are trying not to give any space to [the] Iranian officials or companies working with the film industry [and] involved in the government or the administration in Iran, but I think it’s not enough,” he says. The performance on Friday, he adds, was not permitted by the fest, despite IIFMA’s efforts. “They somehow declined or rejected because they said, ‘We don’t want to be a reflector of violent content.’ But there are so many Europeans and Americans who have not watched what we are seeing in our nightmares every single night.”
What’s happening on Friday is to “grab the attention of the international community of the film industry,” adds Borzorgnia. “Filmmaking is about empathy, about human conditions. And if the international film community is [to be believed] in terms of telling the stories of humans, they need to stand in solidarity with Iranians. No film, no art, has any meaning if there is no empathy in it. So that’s the purpose of us being here, to make sure that the cinema industry is going to stand behind Iranians.”