An Iranian director was not allowed to leave Iran to work at the Cannes Film Festival

Iranian dissident director Mohammad Rasulof was banned from leaving Iran to participate in the work of the jury at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

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Rasuloff was to become a member of the jury of the program “Special View”, reported Variety.

Following his travel ban, the director, who was recently released from Tehran’s Evin prison, where he had been held since last July for criticizing the government on social media, was forced to turn down an offer to serve on the Cannes Film Festival jury.

American actor John C. Reilly will be the chairman of the jury of the “Special View” program this year. The jury also included French director and screenwriter Alice Winocourt, German actress Paula Bier, French-Cambodian director and producer Davy Chow and Belgian actress Emilie Decienne.

Mohammad Rasulof is one of the most famous Iranian directors in the world. At the same time, none of his films were shown in Iran, where they are banned. He is the winner of the 2020 Berlinale Golden Bear for the film “Evil does not exist.”

In 2011, he won two awards at Cannes for the film “Goodbye” on the topic of censorship. After that, he and another Iranian director, Jafar Panahi, were sentenced to six years in prison and a 20-year ban on making films in their homeland for alleged propaganda. Later, the sentence was suspended and Rasulof was released on bail.

Mohammad Rasulof in Cannes in 2017. Photo: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

In 2017, when the director returned from the film festival in Telluride (USA), where he showed his film “Man of Honor” about corruption in Iran, the authorities confiscated his passport.

In July 2022, Rasulof and his colleague Mostafa Al-e Ahmad were arrested for reporting on social media about the collapse of a 10-story building in the city of Abadan in May, which killed more than 40 people. The directors were accused of “inciting riots and violating the psychological safety of society.” Immediately after them, Jafar Panahi was arrested and arrived at Evin prison to find out about the fate of these directors.

76th Cannes Film Festival will be held from May 16 to 27.

The other day it became known that American actor Michael Douglas will receive the honorary Palme d’Or in Cannes this year. Also, on May 14-16, you can watch a documentary about the actor on the festival’s website “Michael Douglas. The Prodigal Son.”

In Cannes, such long-awaited films as “Killers of the Flower MoonMartin ScorseseIndiana Jones and the Relic of Destiny” James Mangold and “Asteroid CityWes Anderson.

The jury of the festival in 2023 will be headed by the Swedish director Ruben Ostlund, whose satirical comedy “Triangle of sadness” became the winner of Cannes last year.

A historical drama will open the 76th Cannes Film Festival “The Favorite” (Jeanne Du Barry)starring Johnny Depp.

The premiere of the documentary film will also take place at the Cannes Film Festival “From where to where” (In the rear view) by Polish director Macek Hamel about the evacuation of Ukrainian refugees after the start of a full-scale Russian invasion on February 24, 2022. And the film by Ukrainian director Anastasia Solonevych and Polish director Damian Kotsur “As it was” (As it was) selected for the main competition of short films.

Read also: Scorsese, Wenders, Kaurismaki. Cannes Film Festival 2023 has announced the program