(Tehran) The main union of Iranian filmmakers on Tuesday called on the authorities to release dissident director Jafar Panahi, detained since July, according to their organization.
“The Maison du Cinéma insists once again on the judicial authorities to consider the possibility of the release of Mr. Jafar Panahi as soon as possible”, indicates the trade union association in a press release published on its site.
62-year-old Panahi, one of Iran’s most award-winning filmmakers, was arrested on July 11 and is due to serve a six-year sentence handed down in 2010, according to the court.
The House of Cinema, which brings together professional associations in Iran, calls on justice to take into account the “physical condition and illness” of Jafar Panahi, without giving details on his health.
The director notably obtained a Golden Lion in 2000 at the Venice Film Festival for The circle and the Screenplay Prize at Cannes in 2018 with three facesthree years after being awarded the Golden Bear in Berlin for Taxi Tehran.
Mr. Panahi was arrested and then sentenced in 2010 to six years in prison and a 20-year ban on directing or writing films, traveling or even speaking in the media. However, he continued to work and live in Iran.
He had been convicted of “propaganda against the regime” after supporting the 2009 protest movement against the re-election of populist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as President of the Islamic Republic.
In July, Mr. Panahi was arrested in court in Tehran where he had gone to follow the case of another award-winning director, Mohammad Rasoulof, arrested a few days earlier.
Last Wednesday, the latter’s lawyer announced to AFP that Mr. Rasoulof had been released on January 7 for two weeks for health reasons.
In addition, the court sentenced documentary filmmaker Mojgan Ilanlou “to six years in prison and 74 lashes for conspiring against security”, the Shargh newspaper announced on its website on Tuesday.
She has been “detained for 90 days and spent 40 days of this period in solitary confinement,” the same source said.
Several personalities from the Iranian cinema have been arrested, arrested or worried for having supported the protest movement sparked by the death in custody on September 16 of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian Kurd of 22 years.
According to local media, M.me Ilanlou had posted photos on Instagram at the end of September of herself during a walk in Tehran without wearing the Muslim veil compulsory in Iran.