A respite, but of very short duration.
Iranian filmmaker and dissident Mohammad Rasoulof, imprisoned since July, was released on Saturday for health reasons.
However, the director should not benefit much from his newfound freedom.
"My client's incarceration has been suspended for two weeks for health reasons,"
the director's lawyer, Maryam Kianersi, told AFP.
The winner of the Un certain regard prize at the Cannes Film Festival, won in 2017 for his film
A man of integrity
, is now resting at home.
The causes of his hospitalization are not known.
The 50-year-old director was arrested on July 8 for encouraging protests sparked after the collapse of a building that killed more than 40 people in May in southwestern Iran.
After this tragedy, a group of Iranian filmmakers led by Mohammad Rasoulof published an open letter calling on the security forces to
"lay down their arms"
in the face of national indignation against
"corruption"
and
"incompetence"
by officials.
Read alsoThe SAG Awards ceremony migrates to Netflix: towards a new era?
"These days off are not counted in his prison sentence, and he will therefore have to stay in prison for two additional weeks
," said his lawyer.
On July 11, the authorities arrested internationally renowned dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi upon his arrival at the Tehran prosecutor's office to follow up on Mohammad Rasoulof's case.
Two prizes at the Cannes Film Festival
Mohammad Rasoulof has won two awards at the Cannes Film Festival for
A Man of Integrity
and
Goodbye,
which in 2011 won the Un Certain Regard selection award.
More recently, he also won the 2020 Berlin Festival Golden Bear with
The Devil Doesn't Exist
.
The director was unable to travel to Germany to receive his prize due to the confiscation of his passport.
He had been sentenced to a year in prison but had not yet started serving his sentence.
Read alsoHarry Potter, one of the most lucrative cinema sagas
Mohammad Rasoulof's temporary release comes as Iran is rocked by historic protests, sparked by the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini following her arrest by vice squad for allegedly violating the dress code for women.
Banned from leaving the territory since 2017, the director was accused in 2019 of "undermining the security" of his country, accompanied by a ban on engaging in
"any social or political activity"
.
The Cannes Film Festival then issued a statement of support for Mohammad Rasoulof, expressing its
"dismay"
at the verdict and asking for the
filmmaker's
"immediate and unconditional" release.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/S7ERVSCT4FUVX6R7TUVBDNTH5Y.jpg)
