2023-08-16 10:57:23
With his feature film Leïla et ses frères, the director Roustaee was found guilty of “contributing to the propaganda of the opposition against the Islamic system” in Iran.
A Tehran court sentenced famed director Saeed Roustaee to six months in prison for screening his film Leila and her brothers at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022, Iranian media announced on Tuesday.
The feature film paints the portrait of a poor family on the verge of implosion, in an Iran plunged into a deep economic crisis. It has been banned in the country since its release last year, for having according to the authorities “breaks the rules by participating without authorization in Cannes and then in Munich». «Tehran’s Revolutionary Court sentenced Saeed Roustaee and Javad Norouzbeigui, the film’s director and producer Leila and her brothers six months in prisonreported the reformist daily Etemad on its website. Roustaee and Norouzbeigui were found guilty of “contribute to the opposition’s propaganda against the Islamic system» in Iran.
Read alsoIran: a film festival banned because of a photo of an unveiled woman
According to Etemad, however, the court ruled that the two filmmakers would only serve one-twentieth of the sentence, or about nine days, while the rest “will be suspended for five yearss». “During the period of suspension, the defendants are required to refrain from activities related to the crime committed and not to communicate with persons active in the field of cinemaadded Etemad. The verdict can be appealed in “twenty days following its notification“, according to the newspaper. Saeed Roustaee, 34, is best known for directing in 2021 Tehran law , a detective film about the drug business and its repression by the Iranian state. For his movie Leila and her brothers Soutaee had received the jury prize from the International Federation of Cinematographic Press in May 2022.
#filmmaker #Saeed #Roustaee #sentenced #months #prison #showing #film #Cannes