Award-winning Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof has announced that he has left Iran after receiving a jail sentence for producing his latest film in secret.
Rasoulof revealed his departure in an Instagram post, expressing gratitude to those who assisted him in crossing borders to reach safety.
His film, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” is scheduled to premiere at the Cannes festival, opening on Tuesday.
Rasoulof gained international acclaim after winning the top prize at the 2020 Berlin Festival for “There Is No Evil,” a film exploring the death penalty in Iran.
“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 wrote in his Instagram post.
His lawyer, Babak Paknia, confirmed that Rasoulof has left Iran and will attend the Cannes festival.
The Iranian authorities had attempted to pressure him into withdrawing “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” from the event, but Rasoulof refused.
Facing an eight-year jail sentence on charges of “collusion against national security,” Rasoulof did not disclose specifics about his escape route.
However, he posted a video of a snow-covered mountain, suggesting he crossed into either Iraq or Turkey with the help of smugglers.
In his Instagram statement, Rasoulof highlighted the harsh repression in Iran, stating, “The scope and intensity of repression has reached a point of brutality where people expect news of another heinous government crime every day.”
Rasoulof’s history of clashes with Iran’s Islamic courts includes a 2019 one-year jail sentence for his film “A Man of Integrity,” which won a Cannes prize in 2017.
Additionally, after “There is no Evil,” he faced charges of anti-government propaganda, resulting in another one-year sentence.
Source-BBC
