Mohammad Rasoulof, here in 2017 at the Cannes Film Festival, where he won an award for his film “A Man of Integrity”.
AFP
Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof was sentenced to 5 years in prison by an Iranian court for “collusion against national security,” his lawyer announced on Wednesday. The director’s latest film, “The seed of the sacred fig”, is one of the works selected for the 77th Cannes Film Festivalwhich begins on May 14.
Mohammad Rasoulof was also sentenced to flogging, a fine and confiscation of his property, Mr. Babak Paknia said in messages on X. This judgment was not announced by the official Iranian media.
The lawyer indicated that the court had imposed a prison sentence of 8 years, including 5 years applicable, and that this judgment was confirmed on appeal on an unspecified date.
Pressure on the film crew
On April 30, Mr. Paknia claimed that the authorities had summoned members of the film’s team for questioning and that they had been pressured to withdraw the film from international competitions.
Mohammad Rasoulof, 52, was arrested in July 2022 for encouraging protests triggered by the collapse of a building, which left more than 40 dead in May in southwest Iran.
After this tragedy, a group of Iranian filmmakers he led published an open letter calling on security forces “to lay down their arms” in the face of national indignation against “corruption” and “incompetence” of those responsible.
Banned from traveling
He was then released temporarily for health reasons in January 2023 and prohibited from leaving the territory.
This temporary release came as Iran was rocked by other protests, this time sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, following her arrest by the moral police for alleged violation of the dress code for women.
Several times awarded
Mohammad Rasoulof won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes in 2017 for “A Man of Integrity”, the story of a man with a simple life who tries to fight against the dishonest maneuvers of a private company pushing villagers to sell their goods.
He then received the Golden Bear at the Berlin festival in 2020 for “The Devil Does Not Exist”, a reflection on free will and the duty to disobey.
Banned from leaving Iranian territory, he was unable to receive his prize, having been sentenced the previous year to a year in prison for “propaganda against the system” after his film “A Man of Integrity”.
“Independent filmmakers”
Mohammad Rasoulof was invited to Cannes in 2023 as a member of a jury, but he was unable to make the trip, still subject to a travel ban.
In July 2022, authorities also arrested internationally renowned dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi when he arrived at a Tehran court to follow up on Mohammad Rasoulof’s case. He was released on bail in February 2023.
“We are filmmakers, independent filmmakers,” wrote the two filmmakers in a joint letter addressed to the Venice Festival in September 2022.
