Iranian director Jafar Panahi was sentenced this Monday, in absentia, to one year in prison for “propaganda actions” against the Iranian State, the filmmaker’s lawyer revealed to France-Presse (AFP).
The penalty also includes a two-year ban on traveling and joining any political or social group, said lawyer Mostafa Nili, who will appeal the decision.
According to AFP, Jafar Panahi is currently outside of Iran, as he spent the last few weeks on an international tour presenting the latest film “It Was Just an Accident”, which included a visit to Lisbon, at the beginning of November, at Cinema Ideal.
Jafar Panahi, one of the most critical voices of the Tehran regime, managed to leave Iran last May, for the first time in 15 years, and presented “It Was Just an Accident” at the Cannes Film Festival, in France, where it won the Palme d’Or.
“It Was Just an Accident” is a thriller moral that examines the dilemma of former detainees trying to take revenge on their torturer, in a direct attack on the arbitrariness of the security forces. The film is also a reflection on justice and revenge in the face of arbitrariness.
In thanking him for the award in Cannes, Jafar Panahi called for freedom in Iran: “I think this is the time to ask all people, all Iranians, with all different opinions, anywhere in the world, to put aside (…) all problems, all differences. The most important thing at this moment is our country and the freedom of our country.”
Jafar Panahi, 65 years old, is the only director to have won the top prize at the four most important film festivals in the world: The Palme d’Or at Cannes for “It Was Just an Accident”, the Golden Bear at the 2015 Berlin Film Festival for “Taxi”, the Golden Lion at Venice 2000 for “The Circle” and the Golden Leopard at Locarno (Switzerland) 1997 for “The Mirror”.
In July 2022, Jafar Panahi was detained in Iran, because he appeared in court to accompany the detention of another Iranian director, Mohammad Rasoulof, as part of protests against the Iranian Government.
With that arrest, the authorities reactivated a sentence of six years in prison, which had been declared against Panahi in 2010, to which was added a ban on leaving the country for a period of 20 years, for “propaganda against the regime”.
Although, months later, the Supreme Court of Iran annulled that sentence and ordered a new trial, Jafar Panahi remained in detention and was only released when he began a hunger strike and paid a deposit.
Last May, on the occasion of his presence at Cannes, Panahi was peremptory in an interview with AFP: “I’m alive as long as I make films.”
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