BERLIN: Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi’s latest picture defying an official ban, “Taxi,” premiered to enthusiastic applause Friday at the Berlin film festival, marking a new chapter of his career in the shadows.

The 54-year-old’s work is celebrated in the world’s arthouses but outlawed in Iran where the regime considers his gritty, socially critical productions to be subversive.

He was detained for a documentary he tried to make on the unrest following Iran’s disputed 2009 presidential election and officially banned from making more films for 20 years for alleged “propaganda against the regime.”

“Taxi” is the third picture he’s made flouting the sentence, and while he won’t be able to walk Berlin’s red carpet as he is barred from traveling abroad, he issued a wrenching statement about his drive to keep working despite the risks.

“I’m a filmmaker. I can’t do anything else but make films. Cinema is my expression and the meaning of my life,” he said.

He said “cinema as an art” was the “main preoccupation” of his life.