In an Instagram post, the director wrote that he was in a “safe place” after people “risked their lives” to help him cross borders. His film “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” will premiere at the Cannes festival, which starts on Tuesday. “I confirm that Mohammad Rasoulof has left Iran and will take part in the Cannes festival,” his lawyer Babk Paknia told AFP.
Mohammad Rasoulof escaped from Iran after another sentence
“I am grateful to my friends, acquaintances and people who kindly, selflessly, and sometimes risking their lives, helped me get across the border and arrive safely after a difficult and long journey,” Mohammad Rasoulof wrote in Monday’s post.
The Iranian authorities previously tried to force him, among others. through many hours of interrogation of his colleagues, he asked the organizers of the Cannes festival to withdraw the Seed of the Holy Fig from the event, but the director refused. Last week, a court sentenced him to eight years in prison and flogging on charges of “conspiracy against national security.” In a statement posted on Instagram, the filmmaker wrote:
The scope and intensity of the repression have reached a point of brutality where people expect news of another heinous government crime every day.
The director probably crossed the border with the help of smugglers
The director has repeatedly come into conflict with Iran’s Islamic courts. In 2019, he was sentenced to a year in prison for his film “An Honest Man”, which won an award at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. After making “There Is No Evil”, which won the main prize in Berlin, about the death penalty in Iran, in 2020 the director was convicted of anti-government propaganda and sentenced to another year in prison.
In July 2022, he was imprisoned by Iranian authorities after publishing an appeal calling on Iranian security forces to stop using weapons during protests sparked by a building collapse in the southwestern city of Abadan. Due to health reasons, the director was released in February 2023.
Rasoulof did not provide any details about the escape route. However, he posted a video showing a snow-covered mountain, suggesting that he crossed the border with Iraq or Turkey with the help of smugglers. You can see it above.
Source: Gazeta
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