The sentence has fallen. Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof was sentenced to eight years in prison, five of which are applicable, as well as lashes, a fine and confiscation of his property by an Iranian court, for “collusion against national security “.
His latest film “The seed of the sacred fig” will be presented on the Croisette next week. The director’s lawyer also 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.
Multi-awarded filmmaker
Born in 1972 in Shiraz, in the southwest of Iran, Mohammad Rasoulof studied sociology, then editing in Tehran. He began his career as a director with a series of short films. He became known in 2005 with “Life on the Water” which tells the story of families who came to settle on a cargo ship off the Iranian coast. The film was selected for the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2005 and won the Special Jury Prize at the Gijón Festival in Spain.
In 2009, the filmmaker released “Keshtzaraye sepid”, “The White Meadows”, which tells the story of a man who travels the islands of the Persian Gulf to collect the tears of the inhabitants. Then in 2010, he directed “Goodbye” in semi-clandestine conditions, which won the directing prize in the “Un certain regard” selection at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. The film tells the daily life of a lawyer from Tehran looking for a visa to leave the country.
A committed work
The filmmaker’s work is marked by his criticism of power. In 2010, he was arrested with Jafar Panahi, a leading director of the Iranian new wave. They were suspected of preparing a film hostile to the new Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and were sentenced to six years in prison in December 2010 for “acts and propaganda hostile to the Islamic Republic of Iran”. A sentence associated with twenty years of ban from filming. On appeal, the latter was reduced to one year in prison and will ultimately not be applied. The Cinémathèque de Paris broadcast the films of the two filmmakers in February 2011 as a sign of support.
In 2013, in his film “The Manuscripts Don’t Burn”, which won the International Federation of the Cinematographic Press Prize (Fipresci Prize) at Cannes, he denounced the regime’s censorship. When he returned to Iran, his passport and personal effects were confiscated at the airport. He is released on bail.
Four years later, “A Man of Integrity” was presented at the Cannes Film Festival in the “Un Certain Regard” selection. The feature film which denounces corruption in Iran, paints the portrait of a simple man who refuses bribes and who is crushed by the system. He received the Grand Prize for this film shot in Iran, with authorization granted by the authorities on the basis of a watered-down script.
Accused of “propaganda against the regime”, the Iranian filmmaker had his passport confiscated as he returned from a festival in the United States. A petition aimed at supporting Rasoulof’s “freedom of expression” was launched on this occasion, collecting more than 4,000 signatories.
“I have to innovate to get around the constraints”
Despite the risks, the Iranian filmmaker always chose to return to his country. “I am Iranian and I make films in Iran. Because the situation will not change if we stay outside,” he declared to Michèle Halberstadt, of ARP Sélection, distributor of the film, quoted by Le Monde.
In 2017, Paris Match interviewed the filmmaker, on the occasion of the film’s release in France. “Every time I start producing a new film, I have to innovate to get around the constraints of censorship,” he explained. “The situation in Iran is such that we find ourselves daily faced with the difficult dilemma of whether or not to oppress others, while ourselves being oppressed by others! It is the dilemma of the trampled who tramples, of the crushed who crushes. This heartbreaking dilemma is not people’s choice. It was imposed on people by those in power,” he denounced.
In 2020, he received the Golden Bear at the Berlin festival for “The Devil Does Not Exist”. This film, shot clandestinely, addresses the way the death penalty is applied in Iran through four stories where the free will and disobedience of the characters are questioned. Banned from leaving the country, Mohammad Rasoulof cannot collect his prize.
It is his only daughter, Baran, who lived in Paris with her mother from the age of 12 to flee reprisals from the Iranian regime who will take the stage in her place. In the JDD, the young medical student, who played in the film, returned to this moment. “I was very nervous about speaking in front of an audience, so I asked his opinion over the phone. He replied that he would be happy if I went on stage, but that he wouldn’t blame me if I didn’t have the courage. Obviously, I went there…”
An arrest in 2022
In July 2022, he was arrested and imprisoned again, with another Iranian filmmaker Mostafa Aleahmad, after the publication of an open letter which called on the security forces to “lay down their arms” in the face of the indignation sparked by the collapse of a building in the southwest of the country. This group of Iranian filmmakers, accused of encouraging the demonstrations, denounced the “corruption” and “incompetence” of those responsible. The Iranian authorities also arrested Jafar Panahi in court, when he came to demand information on the arrest of his colleagues.
After seven months of imprisonment, Mohammad Rasoulof was released temporarily for health reasons. Jafar Panahi was also released on bail. At the time, the Cannes Film Festival condemned these arrests “as well as the wave of repression visibly underway in Iran against its artists” and called for the release of the three directors. Invited as a jury for the festival in 2023, Mohammad Rasoulof was unable to leave Iranian territory.
