A support petition in Iran after the arrest of filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad – Liberation

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The arrest of the two filmmakers on Friday sparked outrage in Iran. Despite the dangers of taking an open position against the Revolutionary Guards, many artists and activists are petitioning for their release and calling for international mobilization.

The brutal arrest of filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof (The devil does not exist Golden Bears in Berlin in 2020) and Mostafa al-Ahmad in Tehran on Friday, on the grounds of their destabilizing activism – and in fact for being signatories in May of a call for the police to stop using their weapons on the crowd protesting against the corruption and regulatory mismanagement that led to the collapse of a tower in Abadan in the south-west of the country -, arouses a strong reaction in Iran. A petition still in the process of being signed is circulating and is already mobilizing 335 personalities from the world of cinema and culture, including some important filmmakers, since it includes Jafar Panahi, sentenced in 2010 to six years in prison and a ban on directing films or to leave the country for twenty years but also Asghar Farhadi (A Separation, A Hero…), undoubtedly one of the most prominent names today internationally and generally keeping a cautious reserve due to of the dangers represented by any open position vis-à-vis the Revolutionary Guards and the first circles of power gravitating around Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The social situation in Iran is very degraded and the regime has to face a veritable epidemic of strikes and angry marches against out-of-control inflation.

Here is the text of the petition, which is also a call for international mobilization, signed, at the time of this translation, by 334 Iranian filmmakers and activists:

“In the early evening of Friday July 8, Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad, two critical and committed filmmakers, were arrested at their home in Tehran in a planned raid, before being transferred to unknown locations.

“While condemning the constant pressure and repression exerted on free-thinking and independent filmmakers as well as the failure to respect fundamental individual and social rights by the institutions and organizations concerned, we demand, urgently, the immediate and unconditional release of our colleagues.

“We also ask for the support of all artists, filmmakers and activists around the world to obtain the release of artists [et de tous ceux qui critiquent la situation actuelle du pays.»

Signataires : Asghar Farhadi, Fatemah Motamed-Aria, Jafar Panahi, Taraneh Allidousti…

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