Following protests over the imprisonment of fellow Iranian filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad, Iranian New Wave auteur Jafar Panahi has been arrested as well. Reports mention Panahi approaching the states prosecutor at Evin Prison to inquire about the July 8th arrests of Rasoulof and Al-Ahmad. Shortly after his visit, he was arrested. His is the latest arrest in a series of incarcerations which started with social media statements criticizing the Iranian government for corruption and their handling of the protest of a building collapse that killed 41 people in Abadan on May 23rd.
In the past, all three filmmakers have been in trouble with Iran’s legal system. Panahi has faced several legal issues throughout his career, so much so that he is currently banned from leaving or making films outside of Iran. His 2011 work This is Not a Film was made in secret with co-director Mojtaba Mirtahmasb and smuggled out of the country on a flash drive hidden inside of a cake. Rasoulof is also barred from making film’s outside of Iran. In 2011, the two were arrested for filming without a permit, in the end both wound up with a reduced sentence and house arrest respectively.
The most recent development in the story comes from the Cannes Film Festival, who spoke out against the incarcerations in a statement. In the past, the festival has awarded Panahi for Best Screenplay in 2018 and made him an jury member in 2010. Here is their statement:
“The Festival de Cannes strongly condemns these arrests as well as the wave of repression obviously in progress in Iran against its artists. The Festival calls for the immediate release of Mohammad Rasoulof, Mostafa Aleahmad, and Jafar Panahi…The Festival de Cannes also wishes to reassert its support to all those who, throughout the world, are subjected to violence and repression. The Festival remains and will always remain a haven for artists from all over the world and it will relentlessly be at their service in order to convey their voices loud and clear, in the defense of freedom of creation and freedom of speech.”
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