Iranian Oscar-winner Asghar Farhadi drew enthusiastic applause Friday for one of the most keenly awaited films at Cannes, with a Paris-set tale about love and its agonies. "The Past" picks up many of the wrenching family themes and the taut drama of the Tehran-based "A Separation", which saw Farhadi scoop the Academy Award for best foreign-language feature last year.

Iranian Oscar-winner Asghar Farhadi drew enthusiastic applause Friday for one of the most keenly awaited films at Cannes, with a Paris-set tale about love and its agonies. "The Past" picks up many of the wrenching family themes and the taut drama of the Tehran-based "A Separation", which saw Farhadi scoop the Academy Award for best foreign-language feature last year.

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Iran on Monday protested against the awarding of a Silver Bear to Jafar Panahi for the best screenplay for Parde (Closed Curtain) at the 63rd Berlin film festival, the ISNA news agency reported. The award went on Saturday to the dissident director and his long-time collaborator Kambuzia Partovi, for a film made secretly in defiance of a ban by the Tehran authorities. "We have protested to the Berlin film festival organisers," ISNA quoted the head of the Iran cinema organisation and deputy culture minister Javad Shamaqdari as saying.