Like those who've never perused the novel Brie Larson's movie was based on, some Iranian filmmakers need to read the room. I have nothing against Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. He's been persecuted for his political beliefs, was arrested, and is still now under 'house arrest' (though he's permitted to travel around Iran). What I find harder to accept is that when living in a country where women and children are being murdered for protesting, he's decided to make a movie about how inconvenient the government makes it for him to make a movie. Yes, No Bears was made before the murder of Mahsa Amini for improperly wearing her hijab but so was the recent Until Tomorrow, a film that had no problems denouncing the treatment of women by the Iranian government (though, it must be said, was made outside of Iran, unlike No Bears). What it comes down to is that I'm less interested in seeing Mr Panahi's life played out on screen than he himself is.

The movie needs to get going for a while before it gets really interesting. Jafar Panahi is of course a hero that he keeps making movies like this. The end of the film is really intense, knowing that Panahi was really arrested not long after.