Year

Country

Home

People

Films

Articles

Store

18/5/2010:Jafar Panahi on hunger strike

The release of internationally renowned filmmaker Jafar Panahi from Evin jail in Tehran on Tuesday 25^th May 2010 came as a result of a meeting between Panahi and Tehran’s prosecutor following the director’s decision to go on hunger strike the week before.   International attention was also once again focused on Panahi’s plight by fellow director Abbas Kiarostami and actress Juliette Binoche, the star of Kiarostami’s film Certified Copy at the Cannes Film Festival.   Panahi was due to be a member of the Cannes jury, but his seat was left empty.

Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Guidance film deputy Javad Shamaghdar denied the publicity at Cannes had any influence on the decision to release Panahi.   In a letter to Gilles Jacob, the President of the Festival, Shamaghdar wrote, ‘It is disappointing that propaganda over the last two days about the judicial case of Mr. Panahi was a pre-planned scenario… Legal procedures of his case have been almost completed and there is much hope that he will be released soon.’

Panahi’s release came one day after Mohammad Nurizad, another Iranian filmmaker detained at Evin prison, was set free.   Nurizad was arrested in December after protesting against the government’s crackdown on the opposition movement and its growing support.

 [ADD]