Iranian authorities are exerting heavy pressure on director Mohammad Rasoulof to pull his latest work “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” from the Cannes Film Festival by harassing the film’s producers and actors who have been summoned for questioning and banned from leaving the country.
Human rights lawyer Babak Paknia, who is Rasoulof’s lawyer, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that several unspecified actors and producers on “Sacred Fig” were summoned and questioned last week by authorities. He added that Iran’s authorities also pressured them to convince Rasoulof to withdraw the film from the festival.
Furthermore, “Some of the film’s actors have been banned from leaving, and according to their statements, after several hours of interrogation, they were asked to ask the director to remove the film from the Cannes festival,” Paknia said in the X post on Tuesday.
Rasoulovf’s lawyer added that it was unclear whether the prominent Iranian auteur will be able to travel to Cannes for the world premiere of “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” which was a late addition to the festival’s competition. Paknia could not immediately be reached for comment.
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Meanwhile the cast, plot, and producers of “Sacred Fig” are still being kept under wraps.
Dubai-based independent Iranian producerKaveh Farnam, a producer on Rasoulof’s 2020 Berlin Golden Bear-winner“There Is No Evil” and“A Man of Integrity,” who keeps in contact with Rasoulov – though he is not a producer on “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” – told PvNew that Rasoulov may currently “be hiding somewhere,” which may explain why Iranian authorities have not put pressure on him directly.
Rasoulof was incarcerated by Iranian authorities in July 2022 after he posted an appeal urging Iranian security forces to stop using weapons during protests prompted by a building collapse in the southwestern city of Abadan. He was released in February 2023 for health reasons.
For the director, not being able to leave his country is certainly not a novelty. Rasoulof was not allowed by Iranian authorities to attend Berlin in 2020. That year, the director’s daughter, Baran Rasoulof, who stars in “There Is No Evil,” picked up his Golden Bear.
Last year, in May, Rasoulof was banned from leaving Iran to serve as a member of the CannesFilm Festival’s Un Certain Regard jury.
