Filmmakers At Risk Org Calls For Action On Detained Iranian Directors: “The International Film Community Must Speak Up”

Melanie Goodfellow
·2 min read
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The International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR), the Amsterdam-based body set up in 2019 to support cinema professionals in danger, has posted an open letter addressing the recent crackdown on Iran’s filmmaking community.

“The last weeks have seen a wave of arrests amongst the filmmaking and artistic communities in Tehran… a huge crackdown is underway and Iranian film artists now have a clear statement as to where exactly the red line lies,” wrote ICFR co-founders, producer Mike Downey and Orwa Nyrabia, who is the director of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).

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The letter follows in the wake of last week’s arrests of two of Iran’s most internationally high-profile directors, Mohammad Rasoulof and Jafar Panahi as well as the lesser-known writer and filmmaker Mostafa Al-Ahmad.

The detentions come amid a clampdown on freedom of expression in Iran as the government reins in a wave of popular protests about a raft of issues, including the cost-of-living crisis, the government’s handling of a deadly building collapse, and stricter dress codes for women.

The IFCR also spotlighted the cases of Iranian documentarians Mina Keshavarz and Firouzeh Khosravani, who were arrested in their Tehran homes in May and then released on bail a week later with a travel ban.

“While no charge has been brought against them they are now prevented from traveling, working or contributing to the “international and Iranian cultural life” for at least six months,” wrote the ICFR.

The body called on the international filmmaking community to speak out in support of their persecuted Iranian colleagues, describing them as “the conscience of the nation”.

“More than ever it is crucial that the international film community comes together and speaks up on behalf of those who have become silenced through repression and imprisonment, in the same way, those filmmakers were giving voice to the voiceless and oppressed,” it said

The ICFR is a joint initiative between IDFA, the European Film Academy (EFA) and the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) to support filmmakers facing persecution. It was set up in the wake of the pan-European campaign calling for the release of Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Senstov, who was held in Russian captivity from 2015 to 2019.

Since its launch, it has also lobbied for detained Myanmar director Ma Aeint, Turkish producer Cigdem Mater, who was recently given an 18-year prison sentence in Turkey on trumped-up charges related to anti-government protests, and Egyptian director Moatz Abdelwahab, who was released in June after two years in a Cairo jail.

The full open letter can be read here.

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