Jafar Panahi On Hunger Strike

[Beltmann]

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi was arrested for "unspecified crimes" several months ago, and I've been following the story ever since. (In my view, he's one of the best film directors alive.) Apparently, he is now planning to protest via hunger strike.

 

Linky

 

Panahi was due to take his place on the Cannes jury this year. Instead, he is incarcerated in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, after he was arrested for unspecified crimes. The festival has left an empty chair on the jury panel.

 

The director has made several films critical of the Iranian regime. All are banned in his own country. Last year, the government imposed a travel ban after he appeared wearing green - the colour worn by opposition Green Movement supporters - at the Montreal Film Festival.

 

Binoche is in Cannes to promote Certified Copy, a film directed be another Iranian film-maker, Abbas Kiarostami.

 

She sobbed as reports filtered through that Panahi had begun a hunger strike. Sitting beside her, Kiarostami called for his release.

 

"The fact that a film-maker has been imprisoned is itself intolerable," he said. "If the Iranian government continues to refuse to release Jafar, then we need explanations.

 

"Jafar Panahi was inclined to make his films under clandestine, illegal circumstances, but that's not his responsibility alone. The responsibility is that of the authorities who prevent him from carrying out his profession.

 

"When a film-maker, an artist, is imprisoned it is art as a whole that is attacked, and it is against this that we should react."

 

Panahi, who won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film festival in 2000 for Dayereh, was arrested in March by plain clothes police who burst into his home.

 

Tehran has denied that his incarceration is "because he is an artist or for political reasons", but opponents of the government believe he was arrested over plans to make a new film criticising the government.

 

Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone and Steven Spielberg are among the high-profile directors petitioning for Panahi's release.

 

Stephen Frears, in Cannes for the premiere of Tamara Drewe, added his voice to the protests today, saying reports of the hunger strike were "terrible news".

[Beltmann]

Panahi's statement

 

I hereby declare that I have been subject to ill treatment in Evin prison.

 

On Saturday May 15, 2010, prison guards suddenly entered our cell, n° 56. They took us away, my cell mates and I, made us strip and kept us in the cold for an hour and a half.

 

Sunday morning, they brought me to the interrogation room and accused me of having filmed the interior of my cell, which is completely untrue. Then they threatened to imprison my entire family at Evin and to mistreat my daughter in an unsafe prison in the city of Rejayi Shahr.

 

I have eaten and drunk nothing since Sunday morning, and I declare that if my wishes are not respected, I will continue to abstain from drinking and eating. I do not want to be a rat in a laboratory, victim of their sick games, threatened and psychologically tortured.

 

My wishes are :

 

- The possibility to contact and see my family, and the complete assurance that they are safe.

 

- The right to retain and communicate with an attorney, after 77 days of imprisonment.

 

- Unconditional liberty until the day of my judgment and the final verdict

 

- Finally, I swear upon what I believe in, the cinema : I will not cease my hunger strike until my wishes are satisfied.

 

My final wish is that my remains be returned to my family, so that they may bury me in the place they choose.

[tongue-tied]

Just terrible.

[Beltmann]

After two months in prison, Jafar Panahi is released--but he still might face trial.

 

The acclaimed film-maker had been held in Tehran's Evin prison after voicing support for an opposition candidate in last year's disputed election.

 

He was released on a bail of $200,000 (£140,000), it was reported.

 

His case has been referred to a revolutionary court, and he may still face trial, the official Irna news agency said.

 

He had been on hunger strike for a week to protest against his detention.

 

Mr Panahi's films are known for their social commentary. He has been a vocal critic of Iran's strict Islamic law and government system.

 

The writer and director was arrested in March along with members of his family, but the Iranian authorities maintained that his detention was not political.

 

Mr Panahi's family were released shortly after their arrest.

 

Cannes protest

 

Mr Panahi has won awards at the Venice and Berlin Film Festivals, and was due to be acting as a member of the jury at this year's Cannes Film Festival in France.

 

It was indicative of Mr Panahi's tense relations with the Iranian authorities that in February he was reportedly refused permission to attend the Berlin Film Festival.

 

Seven years ago, the director won a major prize at Cannes for his film Crimson Gold, which covered the privileged life of Iran's elite.

 

His best-known work, though, is probably The Circle, made a decade ago, which focuses on the treatment of women in Iran and took the top prize at the Venice Film Festival.

 

His films' often critical view of his country - perhaps combined with their success around the world - made him unpopular with some in power in Tehran.

International pressure had been growing on Iran to release Mr Panahi, and he was the subject of an impassioned protest by actress Juliet Binoche as she accepted an award at the festival.

 

Abbas Kiarostami - perhaps the best-known Iranian director internationally - spoke at Cannes about Mr Panahi's imprisonment for a film he is said to have been working on.

 

Mr Kiarostami said he did not understand how a film could be a crime.

 

The Iranian authorities have clamped down on dissenting voices since protests flared over the disputed elections last June.

 

There have been reports of at least 30 protesters being killed in clashes since the polls, although the opposition says more than 70 have died.

 

Thousands have been detained and some 200 activists remain behind bars.

 

At least nine have been sentenced to death, and two have been executed already.

 

Good news. Some of my favorite movies of all time were made by Panahi--if you haven't seen The White Balloon or Crimson Gold or Offside or The Mirror, you really should--and his film The Circle was the single best film of 2001, in my opinion.