Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof flees to Europe amid eight-year jail sentence
Iranian director, Mohammad Rasoulof, whose new movie The Seed of the Sacred Fig is set to premiere at Cannes Film Festival, has fled Iran to Europe after receiving a jail sentence.
Rasoulof is a decorated filmmaker who has previously used his work to shine a light on the ongoing situation in the Middle Eastern country. Notably, the director was awarded the top prize in 2020 at the Berlin Film Festival for There Is No Evil, an exploration of the death penalty rule in Iran.
Ahead of the pending premiere of The Seed of the Sacred Fig at Cannes, which is set to begin on May 14th and conclude on May 25th, Iranian authorities requested Rasoulof withdraw his movie from the film festival.
Instead, he stood firm by his decision. Additionally, last week, Rasoulof was sentenced to an eight-year jail sentence in Iran for “collusion against national security”, leading him to leave the country.
Taking to Instagram on May 13th, Rasoulof revealed he’d left Iran, stating: “I am grateful to my friends, acquaintances, and people who kindly, selflessly, and sometimes by risking their lives, helped me get out of the border and reach a safety after a difficult and long journey.”
He also said of the Iranian regime: “The scope and intensity of repression has reached a point of brutality where people expect news of another heinous government crime every day.”
Meanwhile, his lawyer Babak Paknia, told the AFP news agency: “I can confirm that Mohammad Rasoulof has left Iran and will attend the Cannes festival.” The Seed of the Sacred Fig is set to premiere in Cannes on May 24th.
While Rasoulof has confirmed he will attend Cannes Film Festival later this month, he’s refused to reveal his exact current whereabouts.
The eight-year jail sentence isn’t the first time Rasoulof has had a brush with Iran’s court system. Following the release of his film, A Man of Integrity, which premiered at Cannes in 2017, he was sentenced to a year in prison. Furthermore, There Is No Evil led to another one-year jail sentence after he was convicted of anti-government propaganda.
Meanwhile, Iranian rapper, Toomaj Salehi, was recently handed the death sentence for supporting Mahsa Amini, who was arrested in 2022 for wearing an “improper hijab” and later passed away while in police custody.
More than 100 prominent figures, including Coldplay and Sting, recently signed an open letter calling for his release. The statement reads: “As artists, musicians, writers and leading cultural figures we stand in solidarity with Toomaj Salehi. We call for his death sentence to be immediately and unconditionally quashed and for him to be released from detention without delay, with all other charges dismissed.”
The message continues: “Art must be allowed to criticise, to provoke, to question and to challenge authority. That is both our right and our duty as artists.”
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