The Berlin Film Festival has made one of its highest priorities this year to stand with “the courageous protesters in Iran as they defend themselves against a violent, undemocratic regime.”
03.02.2023 - 19:29 / deadline.com
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been released from Evin prison in Tehran.
The news was confirmed by Panahi’s wife Tahereh Saeidi and her lawyers to local media and on social media.
Lawyer Saleh Nikbakht said: “Although I am happy about Mr. Panahi’s release, it must be said that his release should have taken place three months ago, following the acceptance of our objection to his previous court decision.”
Good News: Award winning Iranian film director Jafar Panahi is released following months of unlawful detention. This came after he announced he will go on dry hunger strike 48 hours ago. #JafarPanahi #جعفر_پناهی https://t.co/TyGziNsadr pic.twitter.com/n2gmWp2Wu1
Acclaimed filmmaker Panahi had gone on hunger strike earlier this week.
The filmmaker, a regular at A-list festivals including Cannes, Berlin and Venice, had been imprisoned even though his sentence had previously been declared void by the country’s Supreme Court.
The director was arrested in early July amid a crackdown on freedom of expression, after going to Evin prison to enquire the about whereabouts of filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad following their detention a few days previously.
It was announced a few days later that the Iranian authorities had decided to reactivate a six-year sentence originally meted out to Panahi in 2010 alongside a 20-year filmmaking and travel ban.
The charges and sentence were connected to his attendance at the funeral in 2009 of a student shot dead in the Green Revolution and his later attempt to shoot a feature set against the backdrop of the uprising
The director of The White Balloon, The Circle and Taxi has not left Iran since the sentence and has been under house arrest on and off during this period.
Nikb
The Berlin Film Festival has made one of its highest priorities this year to stand with “the courageous protesters in Iran as they defend themselves against a violent, undemocratic regime.”
Angelina Jolie and her family are raising awareness for the women in Iran. Jolie took to Instagram to raise awareness for the humanitarian crisis that’s affecting Iran, sharing that her and her children Shiloh and Zahara cut a strand of their hair for an art exhibition.Angelina Jolie takes her daughter Zahara Jolie-Pitt shopping in New York CityAngelina Jolie accessorizes her look with Princess Diana’s favorite Dior bag: See photosA post shared by Angelina Jolie (@angelinajolie)The post is made up of a video and some photos that show Jolie’s daughter’s getting some of their hair cut.
Naman Ramachandran For Indian filmmaker Sreemoyee Singh, world premiering her Iran documentary “And, Towards Happy Alleys” at the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama strand is the culmination of a journey that began in 2015. Singh completed a masters degree in film studies at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India and went on to pursue a PhD on The Exiled Filmmaker in Post Revolution Iranian Cinema, with the objective of understanding the source of “impossible hope” in Iranian films. The filmmaker was also introduced to the poetry of Iran’s Forogh Farrokhzad during the course and “connected deeply” to her verses. A desire to read Farrokhzad’s verses in the original Persian led Singh to learn Farsi.
A UK-based Iranian TV channel has had to stop broadcasting from its headquarters in London, after British police warned staff that it could not protect them on UK soil.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Berlinale red carpet on Saturday became a protest platform against Iran’s repressive regime when a group of Iranian filmmakers and talents, joined by jury president Kristen Stewart, chanted “Women, Life, Freedom!” and demanded the release of imprisoned journalists and an Iranian rapper. Actress Golshifteh Farahani, who is also on the jury; “Holy Spider” actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi; and “The Siren” director Sepideh Farsi were among dozens of Iranian film professionals participating in the protests hosted by Berlinale co-directors Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian. Protesters with signs demanded freedom for female Iranian journalists Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi who are behind bars, accused of “conspiring against national security” for being the first to report on Mahsa Amini’s death, and for the release of dissident Iranian hip hop artist Toomaj Salehi who has been accused of spreading propaganda and could face the death penalty.
Kristen Stewart joined Iranian filmmakers in a demonstration showing solidarity for Iran’s Women Life Freedom protests on the red carpet of the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The wave of protests sparked across Iran by the death of Mahsa Amini by Iranian morality police in September came amid a banner year for Iranian cinema. But as 2023 kicks off, more than 500 people who have protested her death and called for justice have been killed while prominent members of the Iranian film industry were either arrested, put on trial or banned from making movies. The result being that the country’s cinematic community has largely ground to a halt. Which raises the question: unless something changes, how many films actually shot in Iran will be surfacing on the international festival circuit going forward?
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent When the Iran-Iraq war broke out in 1980, director Sepideh Farsi was a high school student in Iran. At age 16, she was incarcerated for being an anti-Islamic Republic activist. Farsi stayed in her country until 1984 and then moved to France, where she experienced the second half of the conflict. In her first animated feature, “The Siren” — which opens Berlin’s Panorama section — the Paris-based director revisits this war through the story of a 14-year-old boy named Omid, who decides to brave the Iraqi siege of Abadan, the capital of the Iranian oil industry. After opting to stay in the city with his grandfather and a bunch of other diehards, Omid and the others take over an abandoned boat he finds in Abadan’s port, which becomes their ark.
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Films Boutique has closed a flurry of deals on “Subtraction,” Mani Haghighi’s Iranian noir thriller which world premiered at Toronto in the competition Platform section. The Berlin-based company has closed deals in France (Diaphana in association with Kinovista), Russia and CIS (A One), Canada (Films We Like), Ex-Yugoslavia (MCF Megacom), Middle East (Fron Row), Poland (Mayfly), Taiwan (Proview Ent.), Australia and New Zealand (Vendetta), Switzerland (Trigon) and Benelux (September Films). The movie is headlined by Taraneh Alidoosti, the Iranian star of “The Salesman” and “Leila’s Brothers” and Navid Mohammadzadeh (“Leila’s Brothers”). Both Haghighi and Alidoosti have recently been targeted by Iranian authorities. Alidoosti was temporarily arrested, while Haghighi had his passport confiscated as he was about to board a flight to attend the BFI London Film Festival.
Dissident Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof was released from prison over the weekend, according to Iranian news outlets.
Former glam rocker and convicted pedophile Gary Glitter has been released from prison 8 years early. Somehow the Dorset, England prison dec
Sony Pictures Classics has taken North American on Maryam Keshavarz’s The Persian Version which won the Audience Award (U.S. Dramatic Competition) and The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award (U.S. Dramatic Competition) at this year’s Sundance. Keshavarz is the first filmmaker to have two films win the Sundance Audience Award in the Dramatic Competition category.
Belgian directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, French filmmaker Alice Diop and Romanian director Cristian Mungiu have demanded that Iran’s Fajr International Film Festival remove their films from the line-up of its current edition, running from February 1 to 11.
Hello and welcome back, Insiders. Jesse Whittock here to guide you through another week in film and TV. Onwards to the weekend…
Dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has gone on hunger strike to protest his ongoing detention at Iran’s notoriously harsh Evin prison, even though his sentence has been declared void by the country’s Supreme Court.
Holy Spider star Zar Amir Ebrahimi led a demonstration in support of the people of Iran and the artists who have been detained by the country’s political regime at the Göteborg Film Festival Tuesday evening.
The Sundance Film Festival returned to Park City after a two-year virtual hiatus and that means the in-person awards ceremony returned as well. Well, sorta.
A Dumfries man who raped three schoolgirls has been released from prison after serving a six-year sentence. Liam Hanratty attacked three girls – aged 11, 13 and 16 – after grooming them online.
Jafar Panahi’s wife Tahereh Saeedi issued a fresh appeal for her imprisoned husband to be released as his period of captivity entered 200 days, in an Instagram post on Thursday.
A few weeks after Zar Amir-Ebrahimi won the Best Actress Award in Cannes for her performance as journalist Arezoo Rahimi in crime thriller Holy Spider, the Iranian-French actor flew to Melbourne, Australia, to take part in what was set to be another urgent story from an Iranian filmmaker: Noora Niasari’s debut feature Shayda.