TEHRAN: Iranian director Jafar Panahi may be celebrated abroad as one of Iran's greatest film directors, but the artist has complained that restrictions at home may force him to drop movie making altogether.

"They are killing motivation," he said of the Islamic republic's scissor-wielding censors, who screen every film to see if it falls into line with revolutionary and Islamic values.

"They tend to make it so difficult for filmmakers that they have no choice but to leave and make films outside Iran," Panahi said. The 44-year-old director won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes film festival in 1995 for "The White Balloon", the Cannes jury prize in 2003 for "Crimson Gold" and Venice Golden Lion in 2000 for "The Circle".

But "The Circle", a downbeat movie that touches on a string of taboos here was handed an outright ban. As for "Crimson Gold", the censors deemed it necessary to cut around a dozen scenes.

Panahi's attempts to bypass the censors have so far failed. "I will not cut a single shot from my films. I won't let them touch my films. They will not be my work anymore if I do," he asserted. "But this means I may have to say goodbye to cinema because I don't want to make films anywhere else except Iran. I will not be forced to leave. My films are about and for the Iranian people."

Although many Iranian-made films never get shown at home, they have found audiences abroad - acclaimed for a distinct dialogue-driven style, subtle social commentaries and sometimes breath-taking cinematography. But Panahi accused the censors, who he says see themselves as some kind of "divine wisdom", of having some kind of blacklist. Another example is the treatment of Iran's most internationally acclaimed director, Abbas Kiarostami, who has not had any of his films screened in Iran since 1997.

The censors asked him to cut down his recent film "Ten" to such an extent that Kiarostami joked he would have to change the title to "Six". "They are sensitive about some of us, and before seeing the film they have already reached a verdict. They focus on finding the slightest faults to ban it," complained Panahi.

While his first two films "The White Balloon" and "The Mirror" were relatively gentle commentaries filtered through the eyes of young girls in an adult universe, "The Circle" charged head-on into topics such as sexual discrimination, abortion, prostitution and abandoning children.

"Crimson Gold" also deals with suicide, murder, social injustice and the gap between rich and poor. Although yet to make it through the censors, the two films have nevertheless found their way onto the bustling bootleg film market here - meaning they are watched but Panahi makes very little money.

And he said a fifth film, "this one too about social issues", had been shelved. "I started working on it last year but quit a few months ago. I do not know whether my previous films will ever be screened so that I can believe there can be a fifth one," he said.

But despite his frustrations, Panahi will not be abandoning the movie business altogether. As a last resort, he said, he will travel round the country with a projector and show his films to small groups of enthusiasts. -AFP