Iranian Filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof Sentenced to Prison for “Propaganda”

Acclaimed Iranian directorMohammad Rasoulofhas been sentenced to eight years in prison with flogging, a fine, and confiscation of property. His lawyer, Babak Paknia,wroteon the platform X that “the main reason for issuing this sentence is signing statements and making films and documentaries, which, according to the court, are examples of collusion with the intention of committing a crime against the country’s security.”

The charges stem from Rasoulof’s new feature filmThe Seed of the Sacred Fig, which is set to debut at the Cannes Film Festival this week. Following the announcement in April that the film would be included at Cannes, Iranian authorities had ordered the director to pull the film from the competition and had pressured festival officials to remove it from the slate. As well, the movie’s producers reported that they were subjected to harassment by state police.

Rasoulof “is accused of making [the film] without obtaining a license from the related authorities,” Paknia told The Guardian, “alongside accusations that the actresses were not applying hijab properly and were filmed without hijab.” The attorney additionally affirmed that “all key members of the film are banned from leaving the country and have been investigated by the security forces of the Ministry of Intelligence.” 

The prison sentence is the harshest punishment meted out to Rasoulof to date. The filmmaker was jailed alongside fellow director Jafar Panahi in 2010 and sentenced to six years in prison after being accused of filming without a permit. The sentence was ultimately suspended after having been reduced to a year. Rasoulof’s 2017 film A Man of Integrity, which looked at bureaucratic corruption and won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes the year it was made, similarly earned him charges of “propaganda against the regime” and “endangering national security.” In that instance, Iranian authorities confiscated his passport and prevented him from leaving the country. Most recently, he was imprisoned in July 2022 for posting an appeal on social media for Iranian security forces to stop using weapons against protesters responding to a building collapse. He was released the following February after staging a hunger strike.