Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi has warned the Toronto Film Festival that people everywhere need to take heed of signs of spreading repression and authoritarianism.

“The truth is I’m little bit scared. I’m seeing things around that are not good signs,” Panahi, wearing sunglasses, said when accepting a Special Tribute Award at the TIFF fundraising gala. Panahi is in Toronto for a screening of his Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident , his first film after being imprisoned in his native Iran.

“I see signs that make me scared about where we’re headed, and exactly in places where we thought we’d never see these signs,” the Iranian director told a TIFF audience after noting that being forbidden by Iranian authorities to travel abroad until recent years left him shaken by what he has see

See Full Page