Oscar-nominated Iranian director Jafar Panahi (It Was Simply an Accident) is ready to once more face trial in Iran on fees of “propaganda against the regime.”
Department 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Courtroom in Tehran has ordered a retrial in his case, after he was sentenced in absentia, to at least one yr in jail and a two-year ban from filmmaking. Panahi on the time was exterior the nation, selling It Was Just An Accident, which gained the Palme d’Or in Cannes and was nominated for an Oscar in one of the best international characteristic class, representing France.
After the Oscar ceremony, Panahi returned to Iran, as he had all the time stated he would, getting into the nation on March 30. He crossed the border within the midst of the continued warfare between the U.S. and Israel and the Iranian regime.
Panahi has been summoned for a court docket listening to in Iran on Could 20 as a part of the retrial.
Panahi spent 86 days in Iran’s infamous Evin jail in 2022 and 2023 on fees of anti-government exercise courting again to 2010. He was launched following a starvation strike and a profitable enchantment that acquired the unique fees thrown out.
In jail, Panahi met activist and political prisoner Mehdi Mahmoudian and the 2 collaborated on the screenplay for It Was Simply An Accident. The thriller follows a former political prisoner who kidnaps a person he believes to be his torturer after which debates with different dissidents whether or not to kill or forgive him.
Mahmoudian was re-arrested earlier this yr and held for 17 days on accusations of “insulting the Supreme Leader” and “propaganda against the Islamic Republic.” He was picked up after writing an opinion piece condemning the federal government’s violent crackdown on protesters. The Iranian authorities carried out a widespread massacres of civilians, killing tens of hundreds.
Iranian movie journalist Mansour Jahani first reported on Panahi’s retrial.
