Mohammad Rasoulof in prison: a petition in support of the director in Iran, Golden Bear 2020

A call for international mobilization. After the arrest of filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mustafa Al-Ahmadi, a support petition was launched in Iran, which has already been signed by several hundred people.

The Cannes Film Festival has also recently issued an official call for support, calling for an immediate release (which we’ll share below).

These two filmmakers were brutally arrested on Friday, July 9. Reason ? Their “Destabilization activism“As our colleagues from Liberation reported. But they add that the real reason would be something else, in this case it was both.”In May, the signatories called on police to stop using guns on crowds protesting corruption and regulatory mismanagement, which led to the collapse of a tower in Abadan, in the country’s southwest.“.

You can read the text of the petition below, which I have provided release :

“In the early evening of Friday, July 8, Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa al-Ahmadi, two critics and loyal filmmakers, were arrested at their home in Tehran in a planned raid before being taken to unknown locations.

Condemning the constant pressure and repression of free-thinking and independent filmmakers, as well as the disrespect of fundamental individual and social rights by concerned institutions and organizations, we urgently demand the immediate and unconditional release of our colleagues.

We are also asking all artists, filmmakers and activists around the world to free artists[andeveryonewhocriticizesthesituationinthecountry[etdetousceuxquicritiquentlasituationactuelledupays[დაყველავინცაკრიტიკებსქვეყანაშიარსებულვითარებას[etdetousceuxquicritiquentlasituationactuelledupays.”

Jafar Panahi was arrested in turn

After launching a petition signed by, among others, Asghar Farhad, Fatimah Mothamed-Arya, Jafar Panahi, Tarane Alidusti…, another Iranian film director was arrested. Jafar Panahi was arrested on Monday morning, July 11, during a demonstration demanding the release of Mohammad Rasoulof and Mustafa Al-Ahmadi.

For reference, director Mohamed Rasoulof was awarded the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2020, the film, whose release was then delayed due to the pandemic, and finally hit the big screens in France in March 2022. For this film called The Devil Does Not Exist (see trailer above), the filmmaker had to run to avoid the censors’ scissors. There is no devil, today will take us to Iran. Heshmat is an exemplary husband and father, but no one knows where he goes every morning. Puya, a young conscript, cannot bring himself to kill a man as he is ordered.

To make a feature film, the team of Mohamed Rasulof defied the bans and often went into hiding. For information, the filmmaker has been sentenced in the past for assembly and consent against national security and propaganda against the regime. He was sentenced in July 2019 to one year in prison, followed by a two-year ban on leaving the territory and a ban on any social or political activities.

Read the full Cannes Film Festival press release:

“On Friday, July 8, 2022, Iranian filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mustafa Alehmadi were arrested and imprisoned at an undisclosed location for protesting violence against civilians in Iran. Mohamed Rasoulof has already been deprived of freedom of movement and work since 2017, following the presentation of his film A Man of Integrity, which won the Un Certain Regard Prize at the 70th edition of the Cannes Film Festival. It also screened his films Manuscripts Don’t Burn, Fipreschi Award 2013 and Au Revoir, Un Certain Regard Best Director Award 2011. He subsequently won the Golden Bear at the 2020 Berlinale for There Is No Devil.

This Monday, July 11, Iranian film director Jafar Panahi was also arrested in Tehran. The Iranian director has presented many works at Cannes, including the films Three Faces, which was selected in competition in 2018 and was awarded the Screenplay Prize, as well as Blood and Gold, the Jury Prize in 2003. Jafar Panahi also won the Golden Bear. Berlinale in 2015 for his film Taxi Tehran.

The Cannes Film Festival strongly condemns these arrests, as well as the wave of repression apparently underway in Iran against its artists, and calls for the immediate release of Mohammad Rasoulof, Mustafa Alehmadi and Jafar Panahi.

The Cannes Film Festival also wishes to reaffirm its support for all those who suffer from violence and repression around the world. The festival is and always will be a haven for artists from around the world and will tirelessly work to make their voices heard loud and clear in defense of freedom of creativity and expression.“