Keep Supporting Our Colleagues in Iran!

ICFR Calls for Support of our Iranian Colleagues in Worsening Times

The International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR) once again asks the international film industry’s attention in support of our colleagues in Iran, whose situations have far from improved in recent weeks. With the increasingly fraught circumstances in and around Iran, the Iranian authorities have been continuing their persecution of filmmakers and their teams, resulting in (renewed) travel bans, expedited arrests and reversed judicial decisions.

Such is the case for Maryam Moghadam & Behtash Sanaeeha, the filmmakers behind this year’s Berlinale-premiering film MY FAVOURITE CAKE, which they had been banned from attending by the Iranian authorities. Despite their passports being returned to them earlier this summer by a more favorable judge, they now found themselves stopped at the Tehran airport as co-director Moghadam was about to go attend their film’s Swedish premiere. Their passports have been confiscated anew, and they have been informed that they are expected in court soon, forbidden to leave the country. As Sanaeeha says to Screen International, “It’s a new case, and we don’t understand what is happening.”

At the same time, writer-director Navid Mihandoust is now in his second year of his three-year incarceration, a sentencing based on a women’s rights activism documentary that was never even released. His father’s pleas for the authorities’ forgiveness continue to be met with silence or refusal. The situation is similarly dire for Zahra Shafiee Dehaghani, who not only sees her lawyers’ appeals for sentence suspension or cancellation constantly denied, but also had to undergo brain surgery following a stroke brought upon by physical abuse in prison.

ICFR continues to monitor these cases closely — as well as other Iran-related situations — and urges our colleagues across the international film industry to continue to speak out in unwavering support of our friends in Iran. We commend the Swedish union for film directors, SFR, as well as Sweden's minister for culture Parisa Liljestrand, for already publicly supporting Moghadam & Sanaeeha.

Even in these tense times, your (continued) support will make an effective difference in Iran’s persecution of our colleagues — and, hopefully, have a positive impact on their freedom to travel, to live in (relative) safety, and to continue making films for the world to see. In the words of recently exiled filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof earlier this year: “Don’t be afraid of intimidation of censorship in Iran. They’re totally incapable of reigning, they have no other weapon other than terror. Don’t fear the authorities. Believe in your liberty.”

 

International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk