According to media reports, another critical film director, Jafar Panahi, has been arrested in Iran. The 62-year-old was taken into custody, the news portal “Etemad” reported today. The exact circumstances of the arrest were unclear, and there was no official confirmation. The award-winning filmmaker had made several films in the past despite a ban on working in Iran and a ban on leaving the country.
His film “Taxi Tehran” was awarded the Golden Bear at the 2015 Berlin Film Festival. Two prominent directors, Berlinale winner Mohammed Rassulof and Mostafa al-Ahmad, were arrested in Iran at the weekend.
Appeal once morest violence as a reason for arrests
According to the Iranian judicial authorities, they are said to have endangered public order with an appeal once morest violence and also worked with opponents of the regime. The organizers of the Berlinale had protested once morest the arrest.
The background to the appeal is the collapse of a shopping arcade in the southwestern Iranian city of Abadan in May, which killed more than 40 people. Protests were then violently suppressed by the police and security forces. More than 70 people from the Iranian film industry called for an end to police violence using the hashtag “Put your gun down”. Rassulof and Ahmad are said to have been the initiators.
Panahi claims to have expressed solidarity with several hundred filmmakers on the Internet following the arrest at the weekend with Rassulof and Ahmad.
