Renowned Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof was prevented from traveling abroad to participate in the Un Certain Regard jury at the Cannes Film Festival.
Rasoulof had hoped to attend this year’s Cannes Film Festival after Iranian authorities granted him provisional release in February, as first reported by Radio France Internationale’s (RFI) Persian-language news service , was released from Tehran’s Evin Prison due to ill health after seven months in prison.
Rasoulof’s friend and dissident director Jafar Panahi was allowed to leave Iran last week for the first time abroad in years . He visited his daughter in France before returning to Iran.
However, Rasoulof was not released.
The 50 year-old director is one of the most prominent critics of the Iranian regime, and his public statements have been on the ground for years Come on, he went to jail several times. He has been banned from making films and has been banned from leaving the country for the past 6 years.
Rasoulof continues to work, filming the movie in secret. His features no evil , an onslaught of violence and hypocrisy at the heart of the Islamic Republic The film was smuggled out of the country and screened at the Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Golden Bear for Best Film.
Before his travel ban, the director was a regular at Cannes. His features Manuscripts Don’t Burn (50) and A Man Of Integrity (2017) both premiered on Un Certain Regard. The former won the Fepsy Critics Award, and the latter won Best Picture honors. INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL TOUR A Man Of Integrity is Rasoulof’s last Movies are able to leave the country. When he returned to Iran after the 2017 movie’s premiere in Telluride in September, authorities confiscated his passport.
Rasulof was arrested last July ahead of the ongoing Women’s Lives Freedom protests for signing a petition condemning police violence against demonstrators.
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to the Cannes Film Festival for comment.
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