Tehran “sees us as criminals”, denounces filmmaker Jafar Panahi
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Currently imprisoned in Iran, the Iranian director, in competition for the Golden Lion (Bears don’t exist), addressed an open letter to the organizers in which he attacked the censorship policy of the authorities of his country.
In an open letter addressed to the Venice Film Festival, where he is competing for the Golden Lion, the filmmaker Jafar Panahisentenced to six years in prison in Iran in 2010 “for propaganda against the regime», accuses the authorities of his country of considering independent filmmakers «like criminals“.
In this forum co-written with his colleague Mohammad Rasoulof and of which the AFP obtained a copy from the festival, he denounces the pressures suffered by Iranian directors:We create works that are not commissioned, which is why those in power see us as criminals.”
Read alsoIn Iran, filmmaker Jafar Panahi will have to serve a six-year prison sentence
Jafar Panahi, in competition this year in Venice with Bears don’t existnotably obtained a Golden Lion in 2000 for The circleand the Screenplay Prize at Cannes in 2018 with Three Facesthree years after the Golden Bear in Berlin for Taxi Tehran.
Dissident artist Jafar Panahi, one of Iran’s most honored filmmakers, was arrested and then sentenced in 2010 to six years in prison and a 20-year ban from directing or writing films, traveling or even s express in the media. He however continued to work and live in Iran. He was notably accused ofpropaganda against the regimeafter supporting the 2009 protest movement against the re-election of ultra-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as President of the Islamic Republic.
Placed on parole since his conviction on July 11, 2022, Jafar Panahi was arrested on his arrival at the Tehran prosecutor’s office when he came to support the cause of Mohammad Rasoulof, detained since July 8 with his colleague Mostafa Aleahmad.
Read alsoDissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi arrested in Iran
Always driven by a spirit of resistance despite the constant intimidation of the Iranian regime, the two signatories concluded the letter addressed to the Mostra as follows: “The history of Iranian cinema bears witness to the constant and active presence of independent directors who fought against censorship and to guarantee the survival of this art. Among these, some are banned from making films, others have been forced into exile or reduced to solitary confinement. We are filmmakers, independent filmmakers.”
The circleby Jafar Panahi in 2000, Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival
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