Iran jails award-winning film director for 'security' offenses
An Iranian court has sentenced prominent
filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof to jail time for "collusion against national
security," his lawyer Babak Paknia said Wednesday.
Rasoulof's film "The Seed of the Sacred
Fig" is to be shown at the main competition at Cannes Film Festival this
month.
The director, who is in his early 50s, has
been sentenced to eight years in prison but will only serve five, Paknia said
in a post on social media platform X.
According to the lawyer, the appeals court
confirmed the verdict and included "flogging, a fine, and confiscation of
property."
He said that the court had found Rasoulof
guilty of "collusion against national security."
Official media in Iran have yet to publish
the verdict.
On April 30, Paknia said Iranian authorities
had summoned for questioning some crew members involved in the production of
"The Seed of the Sacred Fig," adding that they were under pressure to
have it withdrawn from the Cannes festival.
Some crew members have been questioned in
recent weeks while actors had also been questioned and barred from leaving
Iran, the lawyer said.
It was not immediately clear how many people
involved in the production have been questioned.
Rasoulof won the Golden Bear, the Berlin Film
Festival's top prize, in 2020 with his anti-capital punishment film "There
Is No Evil."
He was detained in July 2022 and released the
following year after a wave of nationwide protests that began in September 2022
subsided.
Paknia had previously said that it was not
clear whether Rasoulof would be allowed to leave Iran to attend the Cannes
festival in southern France.
Appearances at the Cannes Festival have in
recent years been increasingly contentious for Iranian directors and actors.
Prominent director Saeed Roustaee was
sentenced to six months in prison for the screening of his film "Leila's
Brothers" at the 2022 festival.
Iranian authorities said at the time it had
been shown without authorization.
The film's star, Taraneh Alidoosti, was
released in early 2023 after almost three weeks in jail over her support for
the protest movement that broke out in 2022.
The monthslong demonstrations were sparked by
the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly
flouting Iran's strict dress code for women.
Iran has long had a thriving cinema scene,
with figures like Jafar Panahi and Asghar Farhadi winning awards around the
world.
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