Cannes: Dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi makes his first appearance at an international film festival in 15 years at Cannes on Tuesday with a story about political prisoners trying to get their own back on their jailers, APA reports citing the BARRON’S.

According to Azeri-Press News Agency, Panahi was banned from making films and has been repeatedly detained since 2009 over his gritty, social dramas, which are considered subversive by the government. His new film, “It Was Just An Accident,” which is in the running for Cannes’s top prize, uses humour to point up injustice, he said in the run-up to the premiere.

The director mentioned that his own time in prison helped color the wry tale. A source close to the filmmaker, who asked not to be named, revealed that his latest film had been shot in secret and had no government funding.

The Cannes film festival runs till Saturday.