Iranian opposition filmmaker Jaafar Panahi, who is serving a six-year prison term in Iran, in a letter to the Venice Film Festival, where he competes for the Golden Lion, accused the authorities of his country of considering independent filmmakers “criminals”.
“We create (artistic) works that are not commissions, so those in power consider us criminals,” the director said in a letter he co-wrote with his colleague Muhammad Rasul Afe, a copy of which was obtained by AFP from the festival. administration.
Panahi was known for his opposition to his country’s authorities. Arrested in 2010 and later convicted of “propaganda against the political system” of the Islamic Republic, he was sentenced to six years in prison and denied the right to make films or write screenplays for many years, and to travel and act in the media after he supported the protest movements that followed the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadi Ahmadinejad in 2009.
Panahi spent about two months in prison, after which he was released on parole, which can be returned at any time.
On July 11, the director was arrested shortly after the arrest of two of his colleagues, Muhammad Rasul Af and Mustafa Al Ahmad, on charges of “disturbing the peace.”
In their letter, the two directors emphasized that “the history of Iranian cinema testifies to the constant and active presence of independent directors who fought against censorship and for the continuity of this art. Among them, some testify to the fact that the films were banned, while others are expelled or placed in isolation.
And he concluded: “We are filmmakers, independent filmmakers.”
The 62-year-old Panahi is considered one of the most prominent names in contemporary cinema in the Islamic Republic. He has received several international awards, most notably the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2000 for the film The Circle and the Golden Bear. Prize for the best film of the Berlin Film Festival 2015 for the film “Taxi in Tehran” Best Screenplay of the Cannes Film Festival 2018 for the film “Three Faces”.
This year, Panahi is up for a prize at the Venice Film Festival for his film Bears Don’t Exist.
