Dissident Iranian director scoops top film award

Iranian dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s movie Taxi, in which the director stars as a taxi driver talking to passengers as he navigates the streets of Tehran, won the top Golden Bear prize Saturday at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Panahi, 54, has been unable to leave Iran after his 2010 conviction on charges of “making propaganda” against the country’s ruling system. Authorities imposed a 20-year filmmaking ban on him, but he has continued to make movies.

Panahi couldn’t be in Berlin but his niece, Hana Saeidi, was on hand for a tearful acceptance of the Golden Bear statuette. “I’m not able to say anything — I’m too moved,” said Saeidi, who herself appears in the movie.