Two parallel love stories in which the partners are thwarted by hidden, inevitable obstacles, the force of superstition, and the mechanics of power.

No Bears sees Panahi's filmmaker directing his new film remotely as he lives in self-imposed exile in a small Iranian village near the border with Turkey. The film-within-a-film traces the story of two lovers, Bakhtiar (Bakhtiar Panjeei) and Zara (Mina Kavani), who want to escape to Europe together.

—John Bleasdale, BFI