(Paris) A group of Iranian filmmakers and actors, including award-winning directors Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof, denounced in an open letter on Sunday the arrest of several of their colleagues in recent days in Iran.
Posted at 10:10 a.m.
The police “searched the homes and offices of several directors, confiscating personal and professional effects and began interrogations and arrests”, according to this letter published on the Instagram account of Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, Golden Bear at the festival of Berlin in 2020 with the devil does not exist.
Mohammad Rasoulof, who was unable to travel to Berlin to receive his prize, was himself sentenced to prison in Iran, but has not yet started serving his sentence.
Repression and censorship constitute “a violation of freedom of expression” and “reduce the safety of filmmakers to the minimum”, denounces the text.
The letter, which does not reveal the names of those arrested, is also signed by the influential director Jafar Panahi, Golden Bear in 2015 for Taxi Tehranwho continues to make films in Iran despite being banned.
The Iranian authorities had not reacted to this letter immediately.
IranWire, a news site based outside Iran, reported “a new wave of arrests of directors and documentary filmmakers”.
“On May 9, two documentary filmmakers, Mina Keshavarz and Firoozeh Khosrovani, were arrested at their homes,” adds this site, which specifies that arrest warrants had been issued against them.
Regularly selected in the biggest international festivals, Iranian films often win the most prestigious awards.