Filmmaker Jafar Panahi released on bail after seven months in prison and hunger strike

“A relief”, for the world of cinema. Renowned Iranian director Jafar Panahi, imprisoned for nearly seven months in Iran, was released on bail on Friday, the NGO Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI, based in New York) announced. Panahi, whose films have won awards at several European film festivals, was released “two days after going on a hunger strike”, according to CHRI, while Iranian newspaper Shargh published a photo of Panahi hugging one of his support upon his release from Evin prison in Tehran.

“It’s extraordinary, a relief, a total joy”, reacted the French producer Michèle Halberstadt, who distributes her films. “His next fight is to have his sentence officially cancelled. He is outside, he is free, it is already great, ”she added for AFP.

Hunger-strike

Jafar Panahi, 62, was arrested in July even before the start of the wave of protest actions that have rocked the Iranian regime since September. He was to serve a six-year prison sentence handed down in 2010 for “propaganda against the system”. In a statement released by his wife on Thursday, the director announced that he had gone on hunger strike on February 1 to protest his conditions of detention. “I will remain in this state until, perhaps, my lifeless body is released from prison,” he warned.

The Cannes Film Festival and two collectives of French filmmakers had called for his release. Jafar Panahi’s last film, No Bear, which, like most of his recent works, features him directly, was screened in 2022 at the Venice Film Festival when he was already imprisoned. He had won the special jury prize.

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