Even before it won the 2025 Palme d’Or, Jafar Panahi’s tragicomic revenge thriller “It Was Just an Accident” marked a momentous feat, as the Iranian master’s first film after the unexpected lifting of the 20-year filmmaking ban imposed on him by his government in 2010, when he was accused of making “propaganda against the state.” Not that this ban, nor even being imprisoned, had managed to curb his creative flow: during this period, Panahi made five films—self-reflexive and probing works, suffused with a keen sense of irony—which demonstrate his rare degree of resourcefulness, and sheer audacity. Filmed in his apartment, “This Is Not A Film” (2011) marks the first of these experiments, while the road movie “3 Faces” (2018) finds him setting out for rural Iran alongside actress Behnaz Jafari.