The Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, recently sentenced to eight years in prison, left his country without the permission of the authorities and arrived in Europe “a few days ago”, specifically in Germany. The director was sentenced to eight years in prison, lashes and the confiscation of his property for the crime of “collusion with the intention of committing crimes against the security of the country.”

“About a month ago, my lawyers informed me that my sentence of eight years in prison had been confirmed in the appeals court and would be implemented shortly. As the news of my new film would be revealed very soon, I knew that, without a doubt, a new sentence would be added to these eight years,” the filmmaker’s text begins. That forced him to choose “between prison or leaving Iran“and “with great regret,” he says, he chose exile.

On his Instagram account, the filmmaker has posted a video of the mountainous landscapes through which his escape took place, accompanied by a text in which he relates that, after his passport was taken away in 2017, last year he tried to recover it and was told that You have no right to have it..

“If geographical Iran suffers under the boots of its religious tyranny, Cultural Iran is alive in the common minds of millions of Iranians who were forced to leave Iran due to its brutality and cruelty and no power can impose its will on it,” he adds in his account. He assures that as of today it is “resident of cultural Iran“, a land “without borders built by millions of Iranians with ancient history and culture in every corner of the world.” And in the statement made public in Cannes he showed his opposition “to the recent unjust sentence against me that forces me to exile me” and that it is one of many cruel decisions of the Iranian judicial system.

Other artists have suffered Iranian repression, such as some rappers who ended up in jail after recording themselves in Persepolis to openly say that they were not afraid. The rapper suffered the same fate Toomaj Salehisentenced to more than six years in prison, being considered the great rapper of the rebellion.

The poet Mahvash Sabet, 71 years old, is serving his second 10-year sentence, having suffered torture by the Iranian authorities. Her knees broke from the pushing they gave her while she was sitting against the wall. All of them are members of a persecuted culture that maintains its fight against the regime.