In the shadow of a crackdown in Iran this month on demonstrations by ordinary citizens against rising food prices, authorities there have also gone after a widely celebrated sector of Iranian society: the filmmakers.
On May 10, as food protests spread across the country, security forces went to the homes of Firouzeh Khosrovani and Mina Keshavarz, two internationally renowned documentary filmmakers, and arrested them, friends and human rights activists said.
At about the same time, the homes of at least 10 other documentary filmmakers and producers were raided, with their cellphones, laptops and hard drives seized, Iran’s three main guilds representing the film industry said in a statement.
Experts called it the biggest crackdown on Iran’s film industry in recent years.
“We demand that this constant environment of fear and uncertainty be lifted from the lives and work of our documentary makers,” the guilds statement said.
Another well-known figure in the Iranian film industry, Reihane Taravati, who shoots celebrities and film sets, was also arrested, according to her friends and the Center for Human Rights in Iran, an independent advocacy group in New York.
Last Tuesday, as movie stars and directors walked the Cannes red carpet in glittery dresses and tuxedos, Iran quietly released Ms Khosrovani and Ms Keshavarz pending a court hearing.
On Saturday, the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk, an organization that supports filmmakers facing political persecution, said Ms Keshavarz and Ms Khosravani will not be allowed to leave the country for six months. “Such measures are dangerous and such artists deserve to be cherished, not prosecuted,” the statement said.
The Iranian authorities have not given a reason for the action, but analysts see it as a warning to the general population amid mounting discontent, and to documentary makers in particular.
“It’s an intimidation tactic that tries to send a message to other Iranians,” said Nader Hashemi, the director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Denver, which focuses on Iran. “It’s also an ideological problem that the Islamic Republic has with these filmmakers.”
In recent weeks, street unrest over rising food prices has spread to at least 20 Iranian cities, Iran’s Center for Human Rights reported. Teachers’ unions and bus drivers’ unions have gone on strike, demanding better wages and arrears.
Security forces clashed with protesters in several cities. Rights groups have reported that at least two protesters have been killed and others have been violently repressed or arrested, including teachers, bus drivers, a prominent journalist, an academic and activists.
Two French nationals were also detained this month on charges of organizing protests in Iran. Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based press information group, said in a Twitter after from last Monday’s Persian report that Iranian intelligence had summoned dozens of journalists in an attempt to silence them.
The Iranian government has a difficult relationship with the country’s internationally acclaimed film industry, taking credit for its success abroad yet trying to control its coverage and reach.
Iranian director Asghar Farhadi was selected last month to be on the jury of the Cannes festival, and two films by Iranian directors Saeed Roustaee and Ali Abbasi, are among the official selections.
Last Saturday, Mohammad Khazaei, the director of the Cinema Organization of Iran, a branch of the government that oversees cinema, said in a statement that “presence at international events is one of the most important parts of Iran’s national cinema”. but reiterated that only films approved for public screening in Iran can be submitted for foreign competitions.
Mr Roustaee said in an email that his film, “Leila’s Brothers”, had no screening permission from Iran’s Ministry of Culture and government officials had accused him of sending the film to Cannes without their approval. He said they also sent him a list of elements that had to be changed or censored in order to get the screening permit.
“I’m not going to give in to censorship,” he said, adding that the list focused on some of the film’s most important and dramatic scenes. “I don’t want my film to be mutilated.”
In recent years, Iran has arrested or prosecuted prominent directors, such as Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof, on charges of creating propaganda against the government.
“Not only widespread censorship, but also the involvement of security forces in the field of cinema, has reduced the job security of filmmakers to the lowest possible level,” reads a letter signed by more than 50 filmmakers and actors and published on Mr. Rasoulof’s Instagram page after the recent gig.
Many Iranian filmmakers have still managed to strike a delicate balance to produce their work, using allegories and personal and intimate stories to describe the wider struggles plaguing Iranians.
“We know that the Iranian government has red lines that we need to follow,” said Farzad Jafari, an Iranian filmmaker who is also a member of the guild. “We all know this, so we’re following it.”
In the latest film by Mrs. Khosravani, ‘Radiography of a Family’, which won the Best Documentary Award at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam in 2020, explored the country’s tumultuous history through her parents’ relationship.
The film describes the impact of the 1979 Iranian Revolution by focusing on the growing distance between her Western-oriented father and her religious mother, who became a faithful servant of the revolution that overthrew the monarchy. Paintings, artifacts and wine disappeared from her house and the music was turned down.
“This is my lifelong experience of being torn between two poles,” Ms. Khosrovani said in a 2021 interview when her film was screened at New Directors/New Films, an annual festival in New York. “This dichotomy in the house is the same as the dichotomy in our society.”
In Ms. Keshavarz’s film, Braving the Waves, she told the story of a woman from rural Iran who has set up a bazaar employing hundreds of local women who want to tear down the local male officials.
Ms Khosravi and Ms Keshavarz were released on bail after their families provided title deeds as guarantees, their friends said, and none of the three women arrested have been formally charged. mr. Jafari said authorities have removed Ms. Khosrovani and Mrs. Keshavarz had returned, but not the other items seized in the house raids.
While the arrests and raids are spreading fear among Iran’s creative arts community, Ahmad Kiarostami, the head of a festival of Iranian documentaries in the United States, said he doubted such repression could discourage Iranian documentary makers, who are deliberately on a dangerous path. with few financial resources. reward.
“It’s almost impossible to make money from the movies. They do it out of passion, it’s pure love,” he said† †I don’t think anyone can stop this passion.”
