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Digital Trends
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
3 great Hulu movies you need to stream this weekend (May 30-June 1)
For the final weekend of May, Hulu is adding one of the most important political dramas of 2024. The Seed of the Sacred Fig was made by Iranian filmmakers and actors who risked imprisonment for their involvement with the film. The fact that it was made at all feels like a miracle, and now it's an easy selection for one of the three great Hulu movies that you need to stream this weekend. Our other two picks for the week include a newly added sex comedy/drama and one of the few Star Wars films that's still on Hulu. But don't wait until the first day of June to watch that one. It's probably going home to Disney+ after May 31, so catch it while you can. Recommended Videos Need more recommendations? We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+. The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024) The story behind the 2025 Oscar-nominated The Seed of the Sacred Fig is just as interesting and compelling as the film itself. Iranian writer and director Mohammad Rasoulof was forced to flee his country after making the movie, but stars Soheila Golestani and Missagh Zareh remain trapped in their homeland. Rasoulof set the story against the real uprising of young women in Iran who pushed back against the harsh religious restrictions placed upon what they could wear in public. Zareh plays Iman, a lawyer who gets his desired promotion to Iran's Revolutionary Court, only to realize that he's supposed to rubber-stamp the sentences brought before him without trial. Iman is also forbidden from telling his wife, Najmeh (Golestani), or their daughters, Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) and Sana (Setareh Maleki), about his new job. He's also given a handgun for protection. When the gun goes missing, Iman becomes increasingly paranoid about the intentions of his wife and children, so much so that it may destroy their bond as a family. Watch The Seed of the Sacred Fig on Hulu. How to Please a Woman (2022) How to Please a Woman is an Australian sex comedy with some drama mixed in as well. Sally Phillips stars as Gina, a middle-aged woman who has an epiphany when her friends send her a stripper, Tom (Alexander England), for her birthday. It turns out that Gina doesn't want to have sex with Tom, but she is very turned on by watching him clean her house with his shirt off. That inspires Gina to save Tom's employers at a moving company and transform them into a cleaning service geared towards women that can also offer sexual gratification on the side. It's a very freeing decision by Gina, as she finally questions what she wants out of her now sexless marriage. But just because Gina feels liberated enough to ask those questions, it doesn't mean she'll like the answers she receives. Watch How to Please a Woman on Hulu. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will be on Hulu through at least May 31. Hulu hasn't confirmed it's leaving on June 1, but you should assume that it is. Rogue One is by far the best Star Wars movie in decades and the one that recaptures the flavor of the original trilogy more than any of the prequels or sequels. In the aftermath of Andor, the movie now plays very differently for a few characters who had larger parts on that show. Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) has a secondary role here to Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), a young woman who unexpectedly holds the key to saving the Rebel Alliance from the Death Star. Jyn's father, Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), helped build the Death Star, and the message he has for his daughter may help the rebels destroy it. But first, Jyn has to be convinced to accompany Cassian and his droid, K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), on a mission to a world under Imperial occupation. From there, it's clear that the only way to stop the Death Star is by stealing the plans from the most secure facility in the entire Empire. Watch Rogue One: A Star Wars Story on Hulu.
News Lens
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News Lens
【2025坎城影展】金棕櫚《It Was Just an Accident》影評：矇住雙眼之後，賈法潘納希對伊朗的看見與不看見
今年坎城影展最高榮譽金棕櫚，頒發給了伊朗名導賈法潘納希的《It Was Just an Accident》，而這部片子除了獲得評審團肯定，也是今年影展最受大家喜愛的電影之一。 而我認為要理解《It Was Just an Accident》，得先大概知道賈法潘納希時常遭伊朗政府拘押、拘禁，來返監獄的經驗。 「看見與不看見」，我認為是伊朗名導賈法潘納希（Jafar Panahi）透過《It Was Just an Accident》想說的事。 那個看見——賈法潘納希拍出來的，是暴力後的個人陰影創傷；至於那個不看見——賈法潘納希指認的，則是政權系統，一個似幽魂盤旋於個人上方的，巨大國家機器的邪惡。 然後，不管賈法潘納希有沒有拍出來，觀眾的眼睛有沒有真正看見，你都會知道，創傷、邪惡、暴力、道德、掙扎——「它們」都是存在的，都在《It Was Just an Accident》之中，那是深植於伊朗社會的集體恐怖。 而我認為要理解《It Was Just an Accident》，得先大概知道賈法潘納希時常遭伊朗政府拘押、拘禁，來返監獄的經驗。 以下無關《It Was Just an Accident》影評，是關於賈法潘納希的概況簡述，但我認為是重要脈絡。 時間回溯至2022年，該年7月11日，賈法潘納希在伊朗首都德黑蘭因不明原因遭到拘押，作為享譽全球的知名導演，賈法潘納希被捕一事自然引起影壇譁然。 而2022年7月11日在賈法潘納希之前，伊朗兩位知名電影人就已遭到拘捕，其一是穆罕默德拉素羅夫（Mohammad Rasoulof），第二位則是穆斯塔法阿利赫馬德（Mostafa Aleahmad），理由是在社群媒體公開批評政府，並被指控與反政府團體有所牽連，同時犯下違反國安罪行。 多元觀點 等你解鎖 付費加入TNL+會員， 獨家評論分析、資訊圖表立刻看 149 元 / 月 1490 元 / 年 看更多 影評 坎城影展 坎城 金棕櫚 賈法潘納希 第78屆坎城影展 2025坎城影展 It Was Just an Accident
CTV News
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi's presence in Cannes speaks volumes
Director Jafar Panahi poses for a portrait photograph for the film 'It Was Just an Accident' at the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP) CANNES, France — Before this week, the dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi hadn't attended the premiere of one of his films in more than 15 years. Panahi, one of the leading international directors, was banned from traveling out of Iran in 2009 for attending the funeral of a student killed in the Green Movement protests, a judgment later extended to two decades. But even when placed under house arrest, Panahi kept making movies, many of which are among the most lauded of the century. He made 2011's 'This Is Not a Film' on an iPhone in his living room. 'Taxi' (2015) was clandestinely shot almost entirely within a car. These and other films of Panahi's premiered to considerable acclaim at international film festivals where the director's conspicuous absence was sometimes noted by an empty chair. When his last film, 2022's 'No Bears,' debuted, he was in jail. Only after his hunger strike made worldwide news was Panahi — who had gone to Tehran's Evin Prison to inquire about his friend, the then-jailed filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof — released, in early 2023. Two years later, with his travel ban finally lifted, Panahi arrived at the Cannes Film Festival with a film, 'It Was Just an Accident,' riven with the fury and pain of incarceration by the Islamic Republic. 'Being here does matter, of course. But what's even more important is that the film is here,' Panahi said in an interview on a Palais terrace. 'Even when I went to jail, I was happy that the film was done. I didn't mind being in prison because my job was done.' Yet Panahi's appearance in Cannes, where the film premiered Tuesday, carries tremendous meaning — and risk — for a filmmaker who has played such a massive role in international cinema in absentia. But for a director who has previously had his films smuggled out of Iran on USB drives, risk is a constant for Panahi. 'Yes, this is an ongoing risk,' he says, speaking through an interpreter. 'Now it will probably be higher. But the Iran situation is unpredictable. It changes everyday. New politics everyday. So we have to see what happens the day we go back.' Last year, in order to reach Cannes, Panahi's countryman Rasoulof crossed the Iranian border on foot before resettling in Germany. (His film, 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig,' was ultimately nominated for best international film at the Oscars.) Panahi says they speak every other day. After the premiere of 'It Was Just an Accident,' Rasoulof texted Panahi to congratulate him on the moment. Unlike Rasoulof, though, Panahi — whose 'No Bears' captured him emotionally gazing across, but not crossing, the border — has no plans to flee. 'I'm flying back to Tehran on Sunday,' he says. 'It's simple. I'm unable to live here,' he elaborates. 'I have no ability to adapt to a new country, a new culture. Some people have this ability, this strength. I don't.' What Panahi does have, as his latest film shows once again, is the ability to deftly lace complicated feelings of resistance, sorrow and hope into gripping movies of elegant, if heartbreaking, composition. In 'It Was Just an Accident,' which is in competition for the Palme d'Or in Cannes, a man named Vahid (played by Vahid Mobasser) believes he sees his former captor and torturer. Though blindfolded while imprisoned, Vahid recognizes the sound of the man's prosthetic leg. He abducts him, takes him to the desert and begins to bury him in the ground. But to satisfy pangs of doubt, Vahid decides to confirm his suspicion by bringing the man, locked in his van, to other former prisoners for identification. In this strange odyssey, they are all forced to confront revenge or forgiveness for the man who ruined their lives. Panahi drew from his own imprisonment but also from the stories of detainees jailed alongside him. 'It was the experience of all these people I met in prison, mixed with my own perception and experience,' said Panahi. 'For instance, the fact of never seeing the face of your interrogator is everyone's experience. But then the people who have spent over a decade in prison have more experience than myself, so I've been very sensitive to their narratives.' 'It Was Just an Accident' may be Panahi's most politically direct film yet. It's certainly his most anguished. That's a product of not just his personal experience in prison but of the protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini. 'I think ultimately violence will be inevitable. And it's exactly what the regime wants, because it gives a justification to the repression,' says Panahi. 'The longer they remain and the more pressure they put on the people, the more the people will feel that they have no other solution. And that's when it will get dangerous.' That doesn't mean Panahi is without hope. 'The Iranians' struggle and fight for freedom is extremely precious,' he says. 'What people are doing is so impressive. The regime is just trying to divide us. That's all they focus on now, to create division between the people.' In Iran, film productions need to receive script approval from the government to shoot in public. Panahi refuses to do that, knowing they won't allow him to make the films he wants to. So committed is he to making film, he notes that the downside to being able to travel is that he might have to spend a year promoting his film, instead of making the next one. On Thursday, Neon acquired the North American distribution rights. 'There's nothing else I can do. Maybe if I had other abilities, I would have changed to something else,' Panahi says. 'When you know that's the only thing you can do, you find ways. Now, I've gotten used to it. It was harder at the beginning. There were less people doing underground films. We started this fashion, in a way, so there are ways we have learned and practiced, many of us.' More than perhaps any filmmaker on earth, you can expect Panahi to find a way to keep making movies, no matter the circumstances. 'I'll try,' he nods, 'at least.' Article by Jake Coyle.
Associated Press
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi's presence in Cannes speaks volumes
CANNES, France (AP) — Before this week, the dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi hadn't attended the premiere of one of his films in more than 15 years. Panahi, one of the leading international directors, was banned from traveling out of Iran in 2009 for attending the funeral of a student killed in the Green Movement protests, a judgment later extended to two decades. But even when placed under house arrest, Panahi kept making movies, many of which are among the most lauded of the century. He made 2011's 'This Is Not a Film' on an iPhone in his living room. 'Taxi' (2015) was clandestinely shot almost entirely within a car. These and other films of Panahi's premiered to considerable acclaim at international film festivals where the director's conspicuous absence was sometimes noted by an empty chair. When his last film, 2022's 'No Bears,' debuted, he was in jail. Only after his hunger strike made worldwide news was Panahi — who had gone to Tehran's Evin Prison to inquire about his friend, the then-jailed filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof — released, in early 2023. Two years later, with his travel ban finally lifted, Panahi arrived at the Cannes Film Festival with a film, 'It Was Just an Accident,' riven with the fury and pain of incarceration by the Islamic Republic. 'Being here does matter, of course. But what's even more important is that the film is here,' Panahi said in an interview on a Palais terrace. 'Even when I went to jail, I was happy that the film was done. I didn't mind being in prison because my job was done.' Yet Panahi's appearance in Cannes, where the film premiered Wednesday, carries tremendous meaning — and risk — for a filmmaker who has played such a massive role in international cinema in absentia. But for a director who has previously had his films smuggled out of Iran on USB drives, risk is a constant for Panahi. 'Yes, this is an ongoing risk,' he says, speaking through an interpreter. 'Now it will probably be higher. But the Iran situation is unpredictable. It changes everyday. New politics everyday. So we have to see what happens the day we go back.' Last year, in order to reach Cannes, Panahi's countryman Rasoulof crossed the Iranian border on foot before resettling in Germany. (His film, 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig,' was ultimately nominated for best international film at the Oscars.) Panahi says they speak every other day. After the premiere of 'It Was Just an Accident,' Rasoulof texted Panahi to congratulate him on the moment. Unlike Rasoulof, though, Panahi — whose 'No Bears' captured him emotionally gazing across, but not crossing, the border — has no plans to flee. 'I'm flying back to Tehran on Sunday,' he says. 'It's simple. I'm unable to live here,' he elaborates. 'I have no ability to adapt to a new country, a new culture. Some people have this ability, this strength. I don't.' What Panahi does have, as his latest film shows once again, is the ability to deftly lace complicated feelings of resistance, sorrow and hope into gripping movies of elegant, if heartbreaking, composition. In 'It Was Just an Accident,' which is in competition for the Palme d'Or in Cannes, a man named Vahid (played by Vahid Mobasser) believes he sees his former captor and torturer. Though blindfolded while imprisoned, Vahid recognizes the sound of the man's prosthetic leg. He abducts him, takes him to the desert and begins to bury him in the ground. But to satisfy pangs of doubt, Vahid decides to confirm his suspicion by bringing the man, locked in his van, to other former prisoners for identification. In this strange odyssey, they are all forced to confront revenge or forgiveness for the man who ruined their lives. Panahi drew from his own imprisonment but also from the stories of detainees jailed alongside him. 'It was the experience of all these people I met in prison, mixed with my own perception and experience,' said Panahi. 'For instance, the fact of never seeing the face of your interrogator is everyone's experience. But then the people who have spent over a decade in prison have more experience than myself, so I've been very sensitive to their narratives.' 'It Was Just an Accident' may be Panahi's most politically direct film yet. It's certainly his most anguished. That's a product of not just his personal experience in prison but of the protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini. 'I think ultimately violence will be inevitable. And it's exactly what the regime wants, because it gives a justification to the repression,' says Panahi. 'The longer they remain and the more pressure they put on the people, the more the people will feel that they have no other solution. And that's when it will get dangerous.' That doesn't mean Panahi is without hope. 'The Iranians' struggle and fight for freedom is extremely precious,' he says. 'What people are doing is so impressive. The regime is just trying to divide us. That's all they focus on now, to create division between the people.' In Iran, film productions need to receive script approval from the government to shoot in public. Panahi refuses to do that, knowing they won't allow him to make the films he wants to. So committed is he to making film, he notes that the downside to being able to travel is that he might have to spend a year promoting his film, instead of making the next one. On Thursday, Neon acquired the North American distribution rights. 'There's nothing else I can do. Maybe if I had other abilities, I would have changed to something else,' Panahi says. 'When you know that's the only thing you can do, you find ways. Now, I've gotten used to it. It was harder at the beginning. There were less people doing underground films. We started this fashion, in a way, so there are ways we have learned and practiced, many of us.' More than perhaps any filmmaker on earth, you can expect Panahi to find a way to keep making movies, no matter the circumstances. 'I'll try,' he nods, 'at least.' ___ For more coverage of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, visit
The Independent
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi's presence in Cannes speaks volumes
Before this week, the dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi hadn't attended the premiere of one of his films in more than 15 years. Panahi, one of the leading international directors, was banned from traveling out of Iran in 2009 for attending the funeral of a student killed in the Green Movement protests, a judgment later extended to two decades. But even when placed under house arrest, Panahi kept making movies, many of which are among the most lauded of the century. He made 2011's 'This Is Not a Film' on an iPhone in his living room. 'Taxi' (2015) was clandestinely shot almost entirely within a car. These and other films of Panahi's premiered to considerable acclaim at international film festivals where the director's conspicuous absence was sometimes noted by an empty chair. When his last film, 2022's 'No Bears,' debuted, he was in jail. Only after his hunger strike made worldwide news was Panahi — who had gone to Tehran's Evin Prison to inquire about his friend, the then-jailed filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof — released, in early 2023. Two years later, with his travel ban finally lifted, Panahi arrived at the Cannes Film Festival with a film, 'It Was Just an Accident,' riven with the fury and pain of incarceration by the Islamic Republic. 'Being here does matter, of course. But what's even more important is that the film is here,' Panahi said in an interview on a Palais terrace. 'Even when I went to jail, I was happy that the film was done. I didn't mind being in prison because my job was done.' Yet Panahi's appearance in Cannes, where the film premiered Wednesday, carries tremendous meaning — and risk — for a filmmaker who has played such a massive role in international cinema in absentia. But for a director who has previously had his films smuggled out of Iran on USB drives, risk is a constant for Panahi. 'Yes, this is an ongoing risk,' he says, speaking through an interpreter. 'Now it will probably be higher. But the Iran situation is unpredictable. It changes everyday. New politics everyday. So we have to see what happens the day we go back.' Last year, in order to reach Cannes, Panahi's countryman Rasoulof crossed the Iranian border on foot before resettling in Germany. (His film, 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig,' was ultimately nominated for best international film at the Oscars.) Panahi says they speak every other day. After the premiere of 'It Was Just an Accident,' Rasoulof texted Panahi to congratulate him on the moment. Unlike Rasoulof, though, Panahi — whose 'No Bears' captured him emotionally gazing across, but not crossing, the border — has no plans to flee. 'I'm flying back to Tehran on Sunday,' he says. 'It's simple. I'm unable to live here,' he elaborates. 'I have no ability to adapt to a new country, a new culture. Some people have this ability, this strength. I don't.' What Panahi does have, as his latest film shows once again, is the ability to deftly lace complicated feelings of resistance, sorrow and hope into gripping movies of elegant, if heartbreaking, composition. In 'It Was Just an Accident,' which is in competition for the Palme d'Or in Cannes, a man named Vahid (played by Vahid Mobasser) believes he sees his former captor and torturer. Though blindfolded while imprisoned, Vahid recognizes the sound of the man's prosthetic leg. He abducts him, takes him to the desert and begins to bury him in the ground. But to satisfy pangs of doubt, Vahid decides to confirm his suspicion by bringing the man, locked in his van, to other former prisoners for identification. In this strange odyssey, they are all forced to confront revenge or forgiveness for the man who ruined their lives. Panahi drew from his own imprisonment but also from the stories of detainees jailed alongside him. 'It was the experience of all these people I met in prison, mixed with my own perception and experience,' said Panahi. 'For instance, the fact of never seeing the face of your interrogator is everyone's experience. But then the people who have spent over a decade in prison have more experience than myself, so I've been very sensitive to their narratives.' 'It Was Just an Accident' may be Panahi's most politically direct film yet. It's certainly his most anguished. That's a product of not just his personal experience in prison but of the protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini. 'I think ultimately violence will be inevitable. And it's exactly what the regime wants, because it gives a justification to the repression,' says Panahi. 'The longer they remain and the more pressure they put on the people, the more the people will feel that they have no other solution. And that's when it will get dangerous.' That doesn't mean Panahi is without hope. 'The Iranians' struggle and fight for freedom is extremely precious,' he says. 'What people are doing is so impressive. The regime is just trying to divide us. That's all they focus on now, to create division between the people.' In Iran, film productions need to receive script approval from the government to shoot in public. Panahi refuses to do that, knowing they won't allow him to make the films he wants to. So committed is he to making film, he notes that the downside to being able to travel is that he might have to spend a year promoting his film, instead of making the next one. On Thursday, Neon acquired the North American distribution rights. 'There's nothing else I can do. Maybe if I had other abilities, I would have changed to something else,' Panahi says. 'When you know that's the only thing you can do, you find ways. Now, I've gotten used to it. It was harder at the beginning. There were less people doing underground films. We started this fashion, in a way, so there are ways we have learned and practiced, many of us.' More than perhaps any filmmaker on earth, you can expect Panahi to find a way to keep making movies, no matter the circumstances. 'I'll try,' he nods, 'at least.' ___ For more coverage of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, visit
