Iranian director Jafar Panahi, who has previously been put in prison and banned from film-making in his home country, spoke out against the restrictions of the regime after winning the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Panahi picked up the prestigious Palme d'Or for It Was Just an Accident, described by BBC Culture as "a furious but funny revenge thriller that takes aim at oppressive regimes".
He was cheered as he urged fellow Iranians to "set aside" differences and problems.
"What's most important now is our country and the freedom of our country," he said. "Let us join forces. No-one should dare tell us what kind of clothes we should wear, what we should do, or what we should not do."
Panahi's last spell in prison, from which he was freed in 2023, was for protesting against the detention of two fellow film-makers who had been critical of the authorities.
His trip to Cannes was his first appearance at an international festival in 15 years, after being subject to a long travel ban.
It Was Just an Accident was shot in secret and based partly on Panahi's own experiences in prison.
"Before going to jail and before getting to know the people that I met there – and hearing their stories, their backgrounds – the issues I dealt with in my films were totally different," the director told the Hollywood Reporter.
"It's really in this context (…) with this new commitment that I had felt in prison, that I had the idea, the inspiration for this story."
The film tells the tale of five ordinary Iranians who are confronted with a man they believed tortured them in jail.
The characters were inspired by conversations he had with other prisoners and "stories that they told me about, the violence and the brutality of the Iranian government", the director added.
Panahi spent seven months of a six-year sentence in jail before being released in February 2023.
He was previously sentenced to six years in 2010 for supporting anti-government protests and creating "propaganda against the system". He was released on conditional bail after two months, and was banned from making movies or travelling abroad.