“The verdict was issued because Mr. Rasulof signed a statement in support of the Iranian people,” his lawyer Babak Paknia told AP. He added that these statements, along with the director’s posts on the X social network and other activities, were labeled by the court as “acts against national security.”
Iranian authorities have not yet officially announced the verdict, the agency noted, noting that Rasulof, along with other artists, among others, signed a call for Iranian security forces to “lay down their weapons” during public protests following a 2022 building collapse in the Iranian city of Abadan that killed at least 29 people. Several of those who signed the appeal have already been brought in for questioning by the police.
An unknown assailant stabbed Iranian director Mehrdjouji and his wife
Foreign
According to his lawyer, Rasúlof was sentenced by the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, while he was supposed to premiere his new film “Seed of the Holy Fig” in Cannes. The film tells the fictional story of the judge of this very court, who mysteriously loses his gun during the growing nationwide protests, and the increasingly paranoid judge begins to suspect his wife and daughter.
He also presented a film in Karlovy Vary
Rasúlof had problems with the authorities before. His film “There is no evil among us”, which tells several stories related to the death penalty, won the Golden Bear award at the Berlinale film festival, but the director could not accept it due to the travel ban he faced in his homeland. In addition, shortly after this award, Rasúlof received a year in prison when an Iranian court evaluated his previous films as “anti-system propaganda”.
In 2017, Rasúlof also visited the International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary, where he presented his film “Unyielding”.
Director Rasúlof, who won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale, was arrested in Iran
Near and Middle East
Tags: years prison flogging Iranian director Rasulof condemned trip Cannes
