The Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, whose latest film will be screened this month at the Cannes Film Festival, was sentenced by the justice of the Islamic Republic to five years in prison for “collusion against national security”. His lawyer made this known. The verdict also leads to “whipping, fine and confiscation of assets” of the director, stated the lawyer Babak Paknia, on the social network X. The official Iranian media have so far not provided any information on this sentence. Babak Paknia specified that the sentence is 8 years in prison, of which 5 effective, against Rasoulof, who in 2020 won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival with his film against capital punishment “Evil does not exist “.
Rasoulof, 52, was arrested in July 2022 for supporting demonstrations that erupted in Iran after a building collapse that killed more than 40 people in the country’s southwest. On that occasion, a group of Iranian filmmakers brought together by Rasoulof asked in an open letter that the security forces “lay down their weapons” in the face of popular indignation against the “corruption” and “incompetence” of the leaders. The authorities released him at the end of 2023, after the anti-government protests that began in September 2022 gradually died down. His film “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” was selected in the official competition of the Cannes Film Festival, which will open on May 14th.