Iranian Director Mohammad Rasoulof Sentenced to Prison, Flogging Ahead of Cannes

Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof has been sentenced by the Islamic Innovative Courtroom to 8 a long time in jail, flogging, and confiscation of property. The ruling came down just days right before the start out of the Cannes Movie Festival, in which Rasoulof is premiering his newest movie in competition, The Seed of the Sacred Fig. According to translated tweets from Rasoulof’s lawyer, Babak Paknia, he was sentenced for “signing statements and producing films and documentaries,” which the court sees as “examples of collusion with the intention of committing a crime against the country’s security.”

This ruling is just the most current act of persecution by the Iranian authorities in opposition to Rasoulof, who has been arrested quite a few times for his films’ alleged “propaganda versus the system.” His work discounts with subject areas which includes cash punishment and the persecution of writers. One particular these kinds of movie, A Person of Integrity, received Un Specific Regard at Cannes in 2017. Authorities confiscated Rasoulof’s passport and banned him from leaving the country that very same year. In 2023, he was invited to serve on the Un Particular Regard jury but was banned from touring abroad yet all over again on expenses of “propaganda from the regime” for his 2022 posts criticizing point out violence in opposition to protesters. Iranian filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mostafa al-Ahmad have been also jailed in the course of this wave of crackdowns versus dissenting speech. At the time, the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Danger issued a assertion directed at the Iranian governing administration, titled “Let Mohammad Rasoulof Go!” Panahi was introduced from jail in March 2023 after likely on starvation strike. Rasoulof is not but in prison next this most current sentencing.