You are viewing the archive: “Mohammad Rasoulof”

Iranian Actress Released From Prison

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday October 28, 2011 @ 11:10am PDTTags: Jafar Panahi, Marzieh Vafamehr, Mohammad Rasoulof, My Tehran For Sale, This Is Not A Film

Hollywood Rallies Against Iran’s Draconian Verdicts Against Filmmakers And Stars

Marzieh Vafamehr, the Iranian actress who was sentenced to a year in prison and 90 lashes for appearing in the government-banned film My Tehran For Sale, has been released from prison, according to Amnesty International. According to the human rights organization, her sentence was reduced to three months and her lashing sentence was overturned; she was released Monday. The movie, an Australian production that wasn’t supposed to be seen in Iran but hit the black market, stars Vafamehr as an actress who is banned from working onstage by Iranian authorities. It shows Vafamehr without a headscarf, and other Iranian young people going to underground raves, smoking hashish and having sex before marriage. READ MORE »

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Iranian Filmmaker Jafar Panahi Faces Six-Year Stretch After Sentence Upheld

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday October 17, 2011 @ 10:34am PDTTags: Iran, Jafar Panahi, Marzieh Vafamehr, Mohammad Rasoulof
Mike Fleming

Somehow this slipped past us this weekend, but Iran has taken another step toward silencing one of the country’s most important filmmakers after an appeals court upheld a six-year jail sentence on Jafar Panahi, according to various reports that included … Read More »

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Toronto: Festival Expresses Grave Concern Over Jailing Of Six Iranian Filmmakers

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday September 26, 2011 @ 1:26pm PDTTags: BBC, Jafar Panahi, Mohammad Rasoulof, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, This Is Not A Film, Toronto Film Festival
Mike Fleming

The hard-line Iranian government continues to be the bane of filmmakers there, and the Toronto Film Festival is speaking out. Deadline has told you how the repressive legal system gave six-year prison sentences to directors Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof for a murky charge of “propaganda against the state,” for publicly mourning the deaths of protesters killed following the presidential elections. Now, six filmmakers have been arrested and charged with espionage for working with the BBC. One of the directors, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, co-directed with Panahi This Is Not a Film, a documentary about Panahi’s plight that was shown during the recent festival. Here is the festival’s protest release: Read More »

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In Odd Twist, Iran Slams Cannes Over Von Trier Ban

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday May 24, 2011 @ 7:30am PDTTags: Apology, Cannes, Cannes Film Festival, Jafar Panahi, Lars von Trier, Mohammad Rasoulof
Mike Fleming

In another Twilight Zone-like twist to Lars von Trier’s bizarre Cannes experience, the Iranian Vice Minister of Culture Javad Shamaqdari sent a letter slamming the festival for “fascist behavior” in declaring the Danish Melancholia director persona non grata after his attempts to be funny in declaring himself a Nazi and saying that he sympathized with Hitler. Von Trier hasn’t had many come to his defense since issuing those dopey comments, but it is odd to get a statement of support from the same government that gave harsh prison sentences and banishment from filmmaking to two of its most important directors, Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof. Both had new films added to Cannes as a show of solidarity. Of course, von Trier issued another statement, which doesn’t really clear up anything: Read More »

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CANNES: In Un Certain Regard, ‘Arirang’ And ‘Stopped On Track’ Tie For Top Honors

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Saturday May 21, 2011 @ 10:48am PDTTags: Cannes, Cannes Film Festival, Mohammad Rasoulof, Un Certain Regard
Mike Fleming

In the Un Certain Regard category at the Cannes Film Festival that consisted of 21 films from 19 different countries, the top prize was shared by the Kim Ki-Duk-directed Arirang and the Andreas Dresen-directed Halt Auf Freier Strecke (Stopped On … Read More »

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CANNES: Fest Awaits Persecuted Iranian Filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday May 18, 2011 @ 5:26am PDTTags: Cannes, Cannes Film Festival, Jafar Panahi, Mohammad Rasoulof

Cannes Festival Adds Films By Persecuted Iranian Filmmakers

The French news agency AFP is reporting that convicted Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof may make an appearance at the … Read More »

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Cannes Festival Adds Pics By Persecuted Iranian Filmmakers Jafar Panahi And Mohammad Rasoulof

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Saturday May 7, 2011 @ 3:11pm PDTTags: Cannes, Cannes Film Festival, Jafar Panahi, Martin Scorsese, Mohammad Rasoulof, Paul Haggis, Sean Penn, Steven Spielberg, Thierry Fremaux
Mike Fleming

In a important show of solidarity, the 2011 Cannes Film Festival has added to its program films directed by Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof, the Iranian filmmakers who each drew six-year prison sentences (with a 20-year filmmaking banishment for Panahi) by a strict Tehran regime that charged them with “propaganda against the state.” Essentially, the men were vilified for publicly mourning protesters killed following the presidential election. Panahi, who won Camera d’Or honors at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival for his first film, The White Balloon, and the Golden Lion in 2000 for The Circle, was arrested again in February 2010, and sent to prison in Tehran on the dubious charge of collusion and propaganda. Filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Francis Coppola, Paul Haggis and Sean Penn, and numerous festivals and humanitarian organizations like Amnesty International, have decried the harsh sentences that have cast a chill on all Iranian filmmakers.

For its part, festival organizers reveal they just got the films that were made in “semi-clandestine” conditions. Read More »

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