(Tehran) The famous Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi has delivered a virulent criticism against the government in an open letter and said he was ready to give up representing his country at the Oscars.
“How can I be deceptively associated with a government whose extremist media have never ceased in recent years to destroy me, marginalize me, stigmatize me”, he replies on his Instagram page to those who accuse him adopt an ambiguous position vis-à-vis the authorities.
The filmmaker, who lives between Iran and abroad, has made the majority of his films in his country, the last of which is A hero shot in Shiraz, chosen to represent Iran at the next Oscars.
“I have explicitly expressed my point of view on the suffering that [l’État] imposed for years on the nation, ”he says, referring in particular to the repression of the demonstrations of 2017 and 2019 and the“ cruel discrimination ”against women as well as the management of the health crisis.
“If the presentation of my film by Iran at the Oscars has led you to conclude that I am under your flag, I explicitly declare that I have no problem rescinding this decision,” he said to the authorities. .
“I have never had the slightest affinity with your attitude and your backslid ideas (although) I have never spoken of the persecution you have subjected me to until now. You confiscated my passport at the airport on several occasions and organized interrogation sessions ”.
Mr. Farhadi has represented the Islamic Republic at the Oscars four times since 2009.
He rose to fame thanks to A separation (2011), chronicle of a divorce which had received the Oscar and the Golden Globe for best foreign language film, the César for best foreign film and the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.
In 2017, it won the Oscar for best foreign film for The customer, a French co-production which tells the story of a couple of actors, Emad and Rana, destabilized after the attack on Rana.
Reacting to the open letter, the ultraconservative daily Kayhan “Deeply regrets” that the state chose Asghar Farhadi to represent the country at the Oscars.
“Festival awards and foreign investment have apparently changed Farhadi by (encouraging him) to paint a dismal and dirty image of Iran,” the newspaper said.
On the other hand, for the reformist daily Shargh, “the image of Farhadi corresponds neither to those who praise him, nor to those who blame him in Iran. He has always clearly expressed his positions on socio-political issues ”.