Imprisoned Iranian Film Directors Honoured At Cannes

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Friday May 13, 2011 19:04 by John Cornford - Hands off the People of Iran hopiireland at gmail dot com

Imprisoned Iranian film-makers Mohammad Rasoulof and Jafar Panahi have both found success in Cannes.

Mohammad Rasoulof's latest film Good Bye (Bé Omid É Didar) has found a world wide distributor.

Jafar Panahi will be awarded the Carrosse d'Or in absentia. The Carrosse d'Or (or Golden Coach), awarded by the Société des Réalisateurs de Films (SRF), rewards film-makers' courage and independence of thought.

Jafar Panahi

Film distribution company Pretty Pictures has bought the world rights for Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof's Good Bye (Bé Omid É Didar). Rasoulof has been sentenced to imprisonment in Iran on propaganda charges and banned from film-making –(along with fellow Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi ) so he made Good Bye in "semi-clandestine conditions". The film, about a young Tehran lawyer who seeks a visa to leave Iran, was a last-minute addition to the Un Certain Regard sidebar in Cannes. Rasoulof cannot travel outside Iran, but his film's star Leyla Zareh and other cast members are expected to attend the Cannes screening on Saturday.

Velaise of Pretty Pictures said: "We are delighted to have acquired Mohammad Rasoulof's wonderfully topical new film, especially after having previously handled his last film The White Meadows. We will release both films theatrically in France this autumn. I am however greatly saddened that the director is not allowed to leave Tehran so as to present the film himself in Cannes, the actors will however surely make up for it."

Rasoulof's other films include Iron Island and Twilight.

The Cannes festival has been upfront in its support for both Rasoulof and Panahi. As well as the nod for Good Bye, Panahi's In Film Nist (This is not a film) gets a special screening and Panahi will be awarded the Carrosse d'Or in absentia.

Panahi, who won the Camera d'Or at Cannes in 1995 for The White Balloon, was convicted of making propaganda against the ruling regime in Iran last December. He was jailed for six years and banned from directing films for 20 years.

A prominent supporter of the protests that followed Iran's disputed presidential election in 2009, Panahi was arrested for joining in mourning for demonstrators killed in July that year. He was subsequently released but barred from leaving Iran. In February 2010 he was arrested along with his family and colleagues and taken to Tehran's Evin prison. He was released on bail three months later after starting a hunger strike, but was later convicted of the propaganda offence.

His place on the jury for this year's Berlin film festival was kept empty in protest at his incarceration. In a similar gesture, Cannes will keep a seat empty in the middle of the orchestra at the Croisette theatre, the screening venue for the festival's Directors' Fortnight.

The Carrosse d'Or (or Golden Coach), awarded by the Société des Réalisateurs de Films (SRF), rewards film-makers' courage and independence of thought. Previous recipients include Clint Eastwood, Nanni Moretti, David Cronenberg and Jim Jarmusch.

Panahi's 2005 film Offside, about a female fan who attends a football match disguised as a boy and is arrested, will be screened at Cannes on 12 May. The following day there will be a press conference to raise awareness of Panahi's situation.

The SRF said: "Because no film-maker, no author can remain indifferent to the violence of such a decision, the SRF has promised to break the silence imposed on Panahi, for freedom of expression."

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Mohammad Rasoulof