Cannes 2024: In Support Of Mohammad Rasoulof
Despite The Threat Of Arrest At Home In Iran, The Director Will Attend Cannes With THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG
As this year’s Cannes Film Festival gets underway in the south of France today, I’ll be watching from afar as always, reading the reviews and reactions, the news and opinions, including looking for more information about the deeply troubling rumors of a major #MeToo exposé and a possible labor stoppage during the festival. But in addition, this year I am paying special attention to the attendance of Mohammad Rasoulof, the Iranian filmmaker whose new work THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG is screening In Competition, the first of his films to do so at Cannes.
Rasoulof is a well-know figure in Cannes, having screened his previous films GOODBYE (2011), MANUSCRIPTS DON’T BURN (2013), and A MAN OF INTEGRITY (2017) in the Un Certain Regard1 section of the festival’s official program2. MANUSCRIPTS DON’T BURN is the first of his films I was able to see, followed by A MAN OF INTEGRITY, both of which offer a powerful critique of the Iranian government and the social and personal implications of state power.3 In February of 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the international film community, Rasoulof premiered his film THERE IS NO EVIL in the main competition at the Berlin Film Festival, where he won the festival’s top prize, The Golden Bear.
THERE IS NO EVIL is an incredible film, a searing indictment of the personal, social, and political impact of the Iranian state’s use of the death penalty as an extension of its own power. I was proud to be able to program the film during the pandemic, offering it to our festival’s audience on our “virtual cinema” platform in 20204, where it won our festival's Fiction Film Competition, our top juried prize for fiction filmmaking. THERE IS NO EVIL remains a movie that defined the pandemic for me, sending me back to revisit Rasoulof’s earlier films, cementing my appreciation for his powerful representations of the ways in which authoritarian power seeks to corrupt and destroy the individual.
With each new film, Rasoulof’s skill has deepened, and his international profile has grown. The reaction of the Iranian government has been, time and again, to sentence him to prison:
In September 20175 his passport was confiscated upon his return to Iran, meaning he became mamnu'-ol-xoruğ i.e. banned from leaving the country. Furthermore, he was ordered to attend a court hearing.
On 23 July 2019, Rasoulof was convicted by the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Iran to one-year imprisonment and a two-year ban on leaving the country and on participation in social and political activity because of his film A Man of Integrity. He is accused of "gathering and collusion against national security and of propaganda against the system".
In August 2019 Rasoulof appealed the verdict.On 4 March 20206, Rasoulof was sentenced to one year in prison for three of his movies, which were considered "propaganda against the system". The verdict also included a ban on making films for two years.
And now, in 2024, Rasoulof is bringing THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG to the Main Competition at Cannes. And once again, the Iranian state has sought to silence him, handing down an eight year prison sentence, a fine, confiscation of his property, and, unconscionably, a flogging, for his work as a filmmaker.
In response to this attack on his personal and artistic freedom, Rasoulof has fled Iran, escaping without a passport and seeking asylum in Europe ahead of the film’s premiere at the festival. He has issued a personal statement, which I am including below in its entirety.
While I am very happy to know that he has been able to secure his personal freedom, I am also very cautious about this incredibly delicate situation, aware that international, extrajudicial state violence against artists, critics, and dissidents continues, and that no public profile offers protection against the murderous apparatus of the state or the stochastic violence of its supporters. The Cannes Film Festival, the nation of France, and the international community at large have a huge responsibility to take every possible measure to maintain and support Rasoulof’s safety; Exile is a long process, but it begins now, and I believe the international community will take that responsibility seriously.
That said, in addition to his personal, physical safety, we must also support Rasoulof’s artistic survival as well. It is my hope that Kino Lorber (who have distributed MANUSCRIPTS DON’T BURN and THERE IS NO EVIL in the United States) and Big World Pictures (who have the rights for A MAN OF INTEGRITY in the United States) will ensure these films are available and get seen, that THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG gets picked up and distributed here in the United States and, most importantly, that audiences see and discuss Rasoulof’s films. I can’t wait to see THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG, and because I will not be in Cannes, I am very hopeful I will see it here in the United States very soon. But first things first—today, I send Mohammad Rasoulof my deepest support, proud to have had the opportunity to share his work in the past and looking forward to doing so again soon.
Those who would imprison Mohammad Rasoulof are counting on your indifference to his work to ensure their success.
We cannot allow them the satisfaction of our silence.
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Statement of Mohammad Rasoulof
May 13, 2024
“I arrived in Europe a few days ago after a long and complicated journey.
About a month ago, my lawyers informed me that my eight-year prison sentence was confirmed in the court of appeal and would be implemented on short notice. Knowing that 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. I didn't have much time to make a decision. I had to choose between prison and leaving Iran. With a heavy heart, I chose exile. The Islamic Republic confiscated my passport in September 2017. Therefore, I had to leave Iran secretly.
Of course, I strongly object to the unjust recent ruling against me that forces me into exile. However, the judicial system of the Islamic Republic has issued so many cruel and strange decisions that I do not feel it is my place to complain about my sentence. Death sentences are being executed as the Islamic Republic has targeted the lives of protesters and civil rights activists. It's hard to believe, but right now as I'm writing this, the young rapper, Toomaj Salehi is held in prison and has been sentenced to death. The scope and intensity of repression has reached a point of brutality where people expect news of another heinous government crime every day. The criminal machine of the Islamic Republic is continuously and systematically violating human rights.
Before the Islamic Republic’s intelligence services were informed about my film’s production, a number of the actors managed to leave Iran. However, many of the actors and agents of the film are still in Iran and the intelligence system is pressuring them. They have been put through lengthy interrogations. The families of some of them were summoned and threatened. Due to their appearance in this movie, court cases were filed against them, and they were banned from leaving the country. They raided the office of the cinematographer, and all his work equipment was taken away. They also prevented the film's sound engineer from traveling to Canada. During the interrogations of the film crew, the intelligence forces asked them to pressure me to withdraw the film from the Cannes Festival. They were trying to convince the film crew that they were not aware of the film’s story and that they had been manipulated into participating in the project.
Despite the vast limitations I and my colleagues and friends faced while making the film, I tried to achieve a cinematic narrative that is far from the narrative dominated by the censorship in the Islamic Republic, and closer to its reality. I have no doubt that restricting and suppressing freedom of expression cannot be justified even if it becomes a spur for creativity, but when there is no way, a way must be made.
The world's cinema community must ensure effective support for the makers of such films. Freedom of speech should be defended, loudly and clearly. People who courageously and selflessly confront censorship instead of supporting it are reassured of the importance of their actions by the support of international film organizations. As I know from personal experience, it can be an invaluable help for them to continue their vital work.
Many people helped to make this film. My thoughts are with all of them, and I fear for their safety and well-being.”
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An official section that highlights films from around the world premiering at Cannes and has its own, “secondary” competition. By not being selected for the main In Competition section, films in Un Certain Regard are ineligible for the Palme D’Or and so the program is not as highly coveted, but often, the best films at Cannes end up here for various programming/ selection reasons.
Which Rasoulof won in 2017 for A MAN OF INTEGRITY.
MANUSCRIPTS DON’T BURN is a true story about the attempted mass assassination of poets and writers critical of the government, A MAN OF INTEGRITY is about the consolidation of local control and resources by state affiliated corporate power.
…And again on the virtual platform during its release window.
This after attending Cannes with A MAN OF INTEGRITY (and winning Un Certain Regard) in May of 2017.
Again, immediately after winning the Golden Bear in Berlin for THERE IS NO EVIL.
Thank you for spotlighting this filmmaker and I hope for the safety of him and all the people involved with the film.