No broadcast in Iran. The Iranian government banned the screening of the film on Wednesday Leila and her brothers, who had been in competition in May for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, we learned from official sources. The feature film “has been banned by the country’s cinematographic organization in accordance with the law,” said Iranian Minister of Culture Mohammad-Mehdi Esmaïli, quoted by the official Irna agency.
Directed by Saeed Roustaee, Leila and her brothers recently participated in the Cannes Film Festival, where he received the FIPRESCI prize (jury of the International Federation of Cinematographic Press). This nearly three-hour feature film paints the portrait of a poor family on the verge of implosion, in an Iran plunged into a deep economic crisis.
Prohibition “until further notice”
Iranian film authorities said they had banned the film “until further notice” for “breaking the rules by participating without authorization in foreign festivals (…) in Cannes and then in Munich”. According to the Organization, the film cannot obtain a broadcast license, given the director’s “refusal” to “correct” his work, as the ministry had asked him to do. During an interview with AFP during the festival at the end of May, Saeed Roustaee hinted that the film’s release in Iran was not yet authorized. The 32-year-old director is notably known for having directed in 2021 Tehran lawa detective film about the drug business and its repression by the Iranian state.
At the beginning of June, Iran announced that it had protested to France against the selection by the Cannes Film Festival of the film Mashhad Nights by Ali Abbasi which tells the story of a serial killer of prostitutes in the main holy city of the country. Iranian actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi won the Best Actress award at Cannes in 2022 for her role as a pugnacious journalist in this thriller.
Great Iranian directors have been awarded at Cannes such as Abbas Kiarostami (who won the Palme in 1997) and Asghar Farhadi, who twice won the Oscar for best foreign language film and was part of the jury this year.