filmmakers
Convicted Cannes director Rassulof fled Iran
Mohammed Rassulof in 2013 at the Cannes Film Festival. photo
© Sebastien Nogier/epa/dpa
The Iranian director is considered a critical filmmaker and was recently sentenced to prison. Now he has secretly left his home country – and could come to the Cannes Film Festival.
The Iranian director Mohammed Rassulof, who was sentenced to several years in prison, left his home country without permission. This was announced by the agency of his new film. Rassulof is at the film festival Cannes, which starts on Tuesday. His new film is being shown there in competition for the Palme d’Or. The film agency wrote that it was still unclear whether he would be able to come to Cannes to present his film “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” in person. The film’s premiere is scheduled for May 24th.
“It was with a heavy heart that I decided on exile”
The news of his secret departure comes shortly after he was sentenced to eight years in prison and lashes. Just over a year ago, Rassulof was again banned from leaving the country. According to activists, this was intended to prevent the director from participating in the Cannes Film Festival. Rassulof, who received the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in 2020 for his film “There is no evil,” is considered an extremely critical filmmaker in the country.
“I arrived in Europe a few days ago after a long and complicated journey,” the agency quoted a statement from Rassulof. “I didn’t have much time to make a decision. I had to choose between prison and leaving Iran. With a heavy heart, I chose exile. The Islamic Republic confiscated my passport in September 2017. Therefore, I had to leave Iran leave secretly.”
The departure was also confirmed on Rassulof’s Instagram page, which was accompanied by great criticism of the Iranian state. “If geographical Iran suffers under the boots of your religious tyranny, cultural Iran is alive in the minds of millions of Iranians,” it said. On Sunday, Iran’s Culture Minister Mohammed-Mehdi Esmaeili criticized the production of his new film. This was a “clear violation,” said the minister, who is also subject to EU sanctions because of the repression against Iranian artists.
Film crew threatened in Iran
The filmmaker reported how much pressure and threats his film team had been put under in Iran. “Before the Islamic Republic’s secret services were informed about the production of my film, some of the actors were able to leave Iran. However, many of the film’s actors and agents are still in Iran and are under pressure from the secret service. They have been subjected to lengthy interrogations. “The families of some of them were summoned and threatened because of their appearance in this film and they were banned from leaving the country.”
Rassulof continued: “They stormed the cameraman’s office and all his work equipment was confiscated. They also prevented the film’s sound engineer from traveling to Canada. During the interrogation of the film crew, the secret service agents asked them to put pressure on me “To get me to withdraw the film from the Cannes festival. They tried to convince the film crew that they didn’t know the story of the film and that they had been manipulated into taking part in the project.”