Iran summons French envoy over FM's reaction to Jafar Panahi's Palme d'Or

The award for his film It Was Just an Accident, hailed as a milestone for Iranian cinema and a symbolic victory for freedom of expression, also sparked harsh criticism from pro-government media in Iran.

Panahi, a former political prisoner banned from travel and filmmaking for over a decade, received a standing ovation at the award ceremony.

The Palme d'Or was presented by acclaimed actress Cate Blanchett on Saturday night. In his acceptance speech, Panahi struck a unifying tone, calling on Iranians inside and outside the country to "set aside our differences" and work collectively toward democracy, dignity and human rights.

“Let no one tell us what to wear, what to do or what films to make,” he said, drawing repeated applause from the audience.

The moment was described by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot as a "symbolic act of resistance" against repression. “Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or revives hope for freedom fighters around the world,” Barrot wrote on X.

A national and global moment

The win drew emotional reactions from across Iranian political and artistic figures at home and abroad.

Nobel Peace Laureate Narges Mohammadi, writing from inside Iran, described Panahi as a “brave and distinguished director” whose recognition was the result of years of relentless effort to deepen human and civil values through art.

Prince Reza Pahlavi, the exiled heir to Iran’s former monarchy, congratulated Panahi and called the award a “great honor for Iran.” He expressed hope that Iranian filmmakers could one day work “without censorship or restriction” in their homeland.

Iranian activist Hamed Esmaeilion called Panahi a “true hero,” praising his resilience in the face of censorship and repression. “His courage inspires all who fight for justice and freedom,” he said.

Political prisoner Mehdi Mahmoudian, speaking from Tehran’s Evin Prison, said the award was “not just a cinematic honor, but a victory of truth over censorship.”

Iranian-British actress Nazanin Boniadi also praised Panahi’s speech, calling him a “unifying voice” at a time when Iranians are searching for solidarity and vision.

The wave of celebration was echoed by 135 civil, political, and cultural activists, who issued a joint statement lauding Panahi as a symbol of artistic integrity and human rights advocacy.

The statement said that Panahi had joined a rare class of filmmakers alongside legends like Michelangelo Antonioni and Robert Altman—to win all three major European film prizes: the Golden Bear (Berlin), Golden Lion (Venice), and now the Palme d’Or (Cannes).

Film made in defiance

It Was Just an Accident, a political thriller, was shot clandestinely in Iran without government authorization and in open defiance of mandatory hijab laws.

The film’s production and Panahi’s public defiance of censorship laws have drawn admiration from international film communities and rights groups.

The Cannes jury also awarded Panahi the Festival’s Citizenship Prize, recognizing his broader contributions to freedom of expression.

An increasing number of Iranian filmmakers are defying the country's strict ideological censorship by making movies without seeking the Culture Ministry's permission for screening abroad.

Last year, prominent Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi said he will not produce any films in Iran until the ban on showing women without headscarves is lifted, as people demand.

Official backlash in Tehran

Inside Iran, however, the award was met with either silence or anger from state-linked outlets.

The conservative daily Farhikhtegan, affiliated with Islamic Azad University, dismissed the honor with the headline: “Palme d’Or Turns to Rust”.

The editorial accused European film festivals of orientalist bias and suggested that Panahi’s acclaim was driven by political motives rather than artistic merit.

The Student News Agency (SNN) went further, branding Panahi a “middleman” and “Iran-seller.” It called the ceremony a “political show” orchestrated by “PR marketers.”

Despite the criticism, Panahi’s victory has reignited conversations around freedom of expression, artistic resistance, and national unity among Iranians worldwide.

As he left the stage in Cannes, Panahi expressed a simple hope: “I dream of an Iran where artists are not silenced, where truth has no borders, and where no one lives in fear for telling a story.”

Major General Hossein Salami, speaking at a ceremony honoring veterans of the Iran-Iraq war in West Azarbaijan province, said that although Iran faces what he described as a “powerful global coalition” of enemies, it continues to function normally at home.

“We are in a full war, but nothing appears warlike. The arenas of battle are active, but the country is at peace,” Salami said in remarks broadcast by state media.

“You see the enemy’s deployment, hear their rhetoric, and feel their political pressure. But the mystery lies in how this nation stands firm and dignified under such heavy pressure.

“All parts of the system are operating normally, while we are in a full-scale war. There is no anxiety among the people—this is exceptional and unprecedented,” he said.

Also on Sunday, commander of Iran’s Army Ground Forces said Iran’s army is fully prepared to respond to any threat “at any level and scale.”

“Our hands are truly on the trigger, and our eyes are wide open,” said Brigadier General Kioumars Heidari, according to state-affiliated ISNA news agency. “We are monitoring threats carefully and are ready to act on the command of the Supreme Leader.”

The comments come after a CNN report last week quoted US intelligence officials who said Israel was preparing to strike Iran's nuclear facilities if ongoing indirect US-Iran nuclear talks collapse.

Before the talks began, US President Donald Trump had already warned Iran that if a new deal was not reached within a set time, the US would bomb Iran.

Speaking to reporters, Heidari said the armed forces — including the regular army and particularly its ground forces — are positioned to retaliate swiftly and decisively against any hostile action.

“If any threat is carried out, rest assured that its origin will be wiped out in a fraction of a moment,” he said. “The people should have confidence that we will confront any threat, from any source, at any scale.”

Last week, Iran’s top military commander announced a major increase in the country’s air defense capabilities, including a fivefold rise in detection and tracking systems.

Last October, Israel carried out a major strike on Iranian targets, destroying large sections of the country’s air defense infrastructure. The attack followed two massive airstrikes from Tehran on Israel. Reports in Fox News and the Wall Street Journal said all of Iran’s S-300s were taken out of action.

“The country’s air defense readiness—especially in detection, identification, and elimination of aerial threats—has advanced significantly compared to last year,” Major General Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, told the IRGC's Tasnim News Agency.

The strike, called by the national union of truckers and drivers, has emptied highways, halted freight movement, and drawn in voices from across the country demanding action on long-standing sector grievances.

In a video from Kaveh Industrial City in Markazi province, a driver said: “Please respect each other. These men have debts, they have loans, but they stood their ground so we can fix things.”

Another video from Firoozkouh showed drivers refusing to take loads, stating: “Not a single truck moved freight today. Every driver is on strike.”

Protesters cite steep insurance costs, delays in diesel quota refills and low cargo rates as key reasons for the strike.

A driver from Dezful sent a message saying, “These trucks’ freight rates are too low. They either don’t get fuel or the diesel fuel cards are topped up late. Why has truck and driver insurance gotten so expensive?”

The scale of the action was visible in near-empty transport corridors. A driver on the Tehran-Isfahan highway filmed the road devoid of freight trucks, saying: “Today is Saturday, May 24. This is the Tehran–Isfahan highway, and there’s not a single trailer or truck in sight.”

Another video from Sabzevar showed trailers honking in unison.

In Kazerun, farmers were seen protesting the lack of available transport for their produce.

A driver from Zarand, Kerman, urged others to maintain discipline: “This video is from Zarand. No one should enter the city until we can support each other. Stand together.”

The drivers’ union, which earlier announced, “Our trucks are silent, but our voices are louder than ever,” said the strike would continue until authorities formally commit to resolving their demands.

“We won’t be deceived again,” the union said in a statement. “No driver will turn on the engine until our demands are officially recognized and enforced.”

Exiled prince Reza Pahlavi expressed support for the truckers’ nationwide strike on Friday, writing on X: “As one of the country’s vital economic pillars, your protest against unjust working and living conditions gives voice to the shared suffering of millions of Iranians crushed for years under injustice, incompetence, and corruption.”

Launched on May 18 in Bandar Abbas, the coordinated protest has since spread to over 35 cities, with truckers pledging to hold out for a full week or possibly longer if their demands remain unmet.

Brigadier General Ghasem Khamoushi, commander of the Islamic Republic’s Army Aviation (Havanirooz), said Iran has developed precision-guided and long-range missiles domestically and expanded the operational capabilities of its helicopters to include night missions using indigenously developed night-vision systems.

“Missile range has increased more than sevenfold, and targeting systems have become significantly more precise,” he told reporters during a ceremony marking the anniversary of the 1982 liberation of Khorramshahr during the Iran-Iraq war.

The city, taken by Iraqi forces early in the war, was retaken by Iran during Operation Beitol-Moqaddas in what is considered a turning point in the war.

Khamoushi added that key helicopter parts, previously affected by sanctions, are now produced in Iran using domestic expertise and knowledge-based companies. The advances, he said, will be formally unveiled in the coming weeks.

Khamoushi also said that Iranian helicopters, once limited to daytime operations, are now equipped to conduct missions in complete darkness, thanks to technological upgrades and locally developed equipment.

Mohsen Langarneshin, a 32-year-old network security engineer, was executed in Ghezel Hesar Prison on April 30 on charges of “waging war against God” and “spreading corruption on Earth,” according to the judiciary’s media outlet Mizan.

Beyond vague headlines in state-controlled outlets, few details of his background and case were publicly available. But rights activist Ryma Sheermohammadi and sources close to Langarneshin told Iran International that the case was fabricated, his trial deeply flawed and confessions he made were extracted under torture.

Iranian authorities were so keen to round up suspects amid serial Israeli intelligence breaches, Sheermohammadi said, that they accused him of being involved in the death of a top missile general they have publicly insisted died by accident.

“This case was manufactured,” Sheermohammadisaid. “He was executed on charges of espionage without a shred of material evidence. The case was built entirely on forced confessions extracted under extreme physical and psychological torture.”

“Mohsen was an easy target for them. They tortured him to gain confessions out of him and he didn’t even tell anyone and fell for their lies that they would spare his life if he complied,” a source close to Langarneshin told Iran International.

Accidental blast

According to Sheermohammadi, Langarneshin was accused of involvement in three high-profile incidents: the 2011 explosion that killed the architect of Iran’s missile program Brigadier General Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, the 2022 assassination of Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodaei in Tehran and a 2023 bombing at a munitions factory in Isfahan.

Tehrani Moghaddam, a brigadier general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), played a central role in developing Iran’s long-range missile arsenal and was widely regarded as the father of Iran’s missile program.

In 2011, he died alongside over a dozen others in a blast west of Tehran - a huge blow to Iran's military establishment but one officials conceded was an accidental detonation during weapons testing.

“At the time (of Tehrani Moghaddam's death), Mohsen was just 19 years old and had no known link to the incident,” Sheermohammadi said.

Sheermohammadi also dismissed allegations tying Langarneshin to the 2022 assassination of Quds Force officer Sayyad Khodaei.

“In the 2022 assassination of Colonel Sayyad Khodaei, Mohsen was accused of conducting surveillance using a motorcycle,” she said. “But he was living in Isfahan at the time, not Tehran, and there is extensive documentation — CCTV footage, phone records, vehicle ownership — proving his absence from the crime scene.”

Langarneshin was also accused of being involved in a 2023 bombing in Isfahan. “But Mohsen had already moved to Tehran well before the incident,” she said. “Again, workplace footage and telecom records confirm this. Another individual was arrested and executed for that very bombing, which raises serious questions about duplicated or fabricated charges.”

Langarneshin had previously worked under contract as a network security engineer at Imam Hossein University, a US-designated military-linked institution controlled by the IRGC that trains specialists in cyber defense, intelligence and missile technology.

“Mohsen had a brief professional association with Imam Hossein University — an IRGC-affiliated institution,” Sheermohammadi said. “That link gave intelligence agencies just enough of a pretext to cast suspicion on him, years later.”

But she said his affiliation ended after 2019 protests which started over fuel price hikes but quickly turned political. They were quashed by authorities with deadly force.

“Mohsen made a principled decision to resign from the university following the bloody crackdown on protesters in November 2019,” she said. “He could no longer, in good conscience, be affiliated with institutions tied to state violence. That act of integrity may have marked him as politically unreliable in the eyes of the regime.”

Sheermohammadi believes Langarneshin was ultimately targeted not for what he did, but his profile fit what investigators were seeking in a defendant.

“The intelligence services were under pressure to deliver ‘results,’ especially in cases involving alleged foreign plots,” she said.

“Mohsen’s international travel history, financial independence through his car business, and technical expertise all made him an easy target — someone who could be cast into a ready-made narrative of espionage, even when the evidence said otherwise.”

Call from Evin Prison

In a recorded phone call from Evin Prison, a copy of which was obtained by Iran International, Langarneshin described being psychologically tortured in a Ministry of Intelligence safehouse the night of his arrest.

His captors, he said, threatened him with flogging, forced him to write false confessions and later filmed him admitting to his alleged crimes based on their cues.

“They told me to say I bought a motorbike, mounted a camera on it and went to film,” he said in the call. “That was very odd — there was never any mention of what kind of motorbike it was or where it came from. I never did that. They made me say it anyway.”

After resisting, he said he was blindfolded, chained in a schoolyard, and filmed again. “They said, ‘This video is for before your execution. If you read the confession we wrote, maybe we’ll change your sentence to life imprisonment.’”

Judge Abolghasem Salavati of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court—referred to by dissidents as the “hanging judge” for his record of issuing numerous death sentences in politically sensitive cases—and upheld by the Supreme Court.

All three retrial requests were rejected — the last one dismissed within two days and without explanation.

His father, Massoud Langarneshin, released a video the day before the execution, calling the case “full of flaws, ambiguities and questions.” His mother also confirmed she had her final visit with Mohsen that same day and appealed for help.

Several human rights groups including Norway based rights group Iran Human Rights (IHR) condemned the hanging, which IHR said took place alongside several other prisoners," said IHRNGO Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.

“We must raise the cost of these extrajudicial killings for the authorities through strong international reactions and widespread protest.”

Sheermohammadi said Iranian authorities refused to tell Langarneshin family where he was buried and had forced them to delete all their social media posts.

“Mohsen’s family is being forced into silence by intelligence agents. They have been told not to speak to the media about Mohsen. Only if they obey the conditions set by the intelligence agents are they willing to disclose his burial site,” another source told Iran International.

After eleven days of uncertainty, Sheermohammadi confirmed that Langarneshin had been buried in Behesht Zahra cemetery in south Tehran, alongside other executed political prisoners.