Explained: Why Iran has arrested three award-winning filmmakers

Panahi, who had gone to the prosecutor’s office in Tehran on Monday evening to check on Rasoulof, was also arrested by security forces, The Associated Press reported.

Who are the three film directors arrested in Iran?

One of the most prominent faces of the second half of the Iranian new wave cinema, Jafar Panahi is known for making films about social issues that critique the Iranian theocracy.

Although the director started off making films within the boundaries of Iranian censorship, he later deviated from the style and made films like The Circle (2000) and Offside (2006).

Panahi won the Venice Golden Lion for The Circle, which depicts women’s lives in Iran’s patriarchal society.

Offside, meanwhile, portrays the story of a group of young Iranian girls disguised as boys and men to sneak into Azadi Stadium to watch a FIFA qualifier match between Iran and Bahrain. Panahi in an interview said the film was partially shot during the actual game. After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, women were banned from attending football matches in Iran.

In 2011, Panahi and Rasoulof were both arrested for filming without a permit. The duo was sentenced to six years in prison, and banned from making films for 20 years on charges that included making propaganda against the regime. While Rasoulof’s sentence was reduced to a year, Panahi’s was never really enforced and he continued to make underground films while in house arrest, without government script approval or permits.

The films by Panahi were released abroad to great acclaim. From his post-exile filmography, Panahi has won multiple festival awards, including the 2015 Berlin Golden Bear for Taxi, a wide-ranging meditation on poverty, sexism, and censorship in Iran.

Critically-acclaimed independent film director Mohammad Rasoulof is known both for his award-winning films and his activism off-screen. Rasoulof’s There Is No Evil (2020) won the Golden Bear prize for best picture at the Berlin Film Festival. The film is about capital punishment and was filmed in secret in defiance of Iranian government censorship.

However, facing a travel ban in Iran, Rasoulof wasn’t present to accept the award himself. The director’s daughter Baran accepted the Golden Bear on his behalf. An empty chair and a name card were left by organisers for Rasoulof at the news conference.

Mostafa Aleahmad, the third director to get arrested, is an associate of Rasoulof. Aleahmad also shared the statement on his Instagram account. He has directed movie Poosteh (2009), based on the life of a man out of a prison while making the way back again.

 

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So, what led to their arrests?

Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Aleahmad were detained on July 8 after posting a statement against the brutal crackdown on the agitation following the Abadan building collapse.

Rasoulof and Aleahmad were among a group of film personalities who had signed an appeal which called on the country’s security forces to “lay down your weapons and return to the nation’s embrace” during the street protests. Panahi, who was one of the signatories and also posted the appeal on Instagram, was not initially arrested but detained later on when he went to the prosecutor’s office in Tehran to check on Rasaulof’s case.

 

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Currently, Panahi has been sent to Iran’s notorious Evin Prison, said a colleague of the director who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. He also said the director has been arrested to serve out a prison term dating back years.

The hardline government of President Ebrahim Raisi has also been facing public outrage over soaring food prices. Indirect US-Iran talks to resurrect a 2015 nuclear accord and lift sanctions have also stalled and the country is diving further into a deeper economic crisis.

International reactions

Cannes, in a statement, sharply condemned the arrests of all the three Iranian directors. “The Festival de Cannes strongly condemns these arrests as well as the wave of repression obviously in progress in Iran against its artists. The Festival calls for the immediate release of Mohammad Rasoulof, Mostafa Aleahmad and Jafar Panahi,” the statement read.

Earlier, Berlinale also condemned Rasoulof’s arrest. In a statement, the film festival’s directors Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian said, “We are deeply concerned about the arrest of Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Aleahmad. It’s shocking that artists are taken into custody because of their peaceful endeavors against violence. We call on the Iranian authorities to release the two directors.”

Films, which come with tight censorship in Iran, have always been a bone of contention for the theocracy. Several Iranian films which have been acclaimed, screened, or awarded in other countries, have been banned in Iran. Amidst the curb on creative freedom, the country has produced legendary directors such as Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi, Mohsen Makmalbaf, Asghar Farhadi, Mohammad Rasoulof, Majid Majidi, and many more. The films made by these directors have helped Iran receive global fame.