A court in Iran has given famous movie director Mohammad Rasoulof eight years in jail for doing things that the country thinks are bad for security, his lawyer said on Wednesday.
Rasoulof’s lawyer, Babak Paknia, said on a social media site that the court thought Rasoulof’s movies were making trouble for the country’s safety. The court also said Rasoulof had to pay some money and give up his things.
CNN tried to ask Iranian authorities about this, but they didn’t say anything.
Rasoulof won a prize for his movie “There Is No Evil” in 2020 and another prize for “A Man of Integrity” in 2017. His new movie, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” is going to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival in France next week.
But before the movie came out, Rasoulof and his team had problems with the government, as his lawyer said last week.
Some actors got questioned and couldn’t leave Iran. Some people said officials told them to tell Rasoulof to stop his movie from going to the festival.
His lawyer also said they didn’t know if Rasoulof could go to Cannes for the movie’s showing.
In 2022, Rasoulof got one year in jail and couldn’t make movies for two years because he said things the government didn’t like, Human Rights Watch said.
The government has arrested him before and taken away his passport because of his work, HRW said. A group in Iran that helps movie makers said the court’s decision was wrong and showed that the law in Iran doesn’t always work right. They said they support Rasoulof and other artists who don’t like the government’s rules.
