Mohammad Rasoulof on the Red Carpet; Exiled Iranian Director Cheered at Cannes Festival

Mohammad Rasoulof, a prominent Iranian director who recently fled the country illegally, attended the red carpet ceremony and the premiere of his new film at the Cannes Film Festival. This work, titled "The Fig Seed of Temples," is part of the main competition section of the festival and is a contender for this year's Palme d'Or. The exiled director appeared on the red carpet on Friday alongside Golshifteh Farahani, an Iranian actress, and several members of his film's cast and crew, responding to the emotions of the attendees. Rasoulof attended the ceremony holding images of Soheila Golestani and Mithaq Zare, two actors from the film, who are under pressure from the Islamic Republic and were unable to leave Iran. Rasoulof stated that his new film is about the family of a Revolutionary Court official during the recent nationwide protests in Iran, drawing from his personal experiences with the country's judicial system. "The Fig Seed of Temples" tells the story of a Tehran Revolutionary Court investigating judge named "Iman" who suffers from distrust and paranoia. As political protests escalate in the country, this judge's weapon mysteriously disappears, leading him to suspect his wife Najmeh and his daughters Rezvan and Thna, resulting in heightened tensions at home. After being sentenced to eight years in prison by the Islamic Republic, Rasoulof was forced to flee Iran. According to Rasoulof's lawyer, the 51-year-old filmmaker was convicted due to his critical statements against the Islamic Republic's officials and for making underground films in Iran. Recently, Mohammad Mahdi Esmaeili, the Minister of Culture of the Islamic Republic, stated to Iranian state media that Rasoulof's new film was made illegally, and the government would crack down on the production of unlicensed works. At Cannes, Rasoulof told Reuters that the idea for this film came to him after being arrested and imprisoned multiple times by the government. He has been charged with crimes related to filming without permission and conspiracy against national security. Rasoulof, a prominent critic of the Iranian government, added that he has been interrogated many times over the past few years, has gone to court, and has been in contact with many people who run the prison. He expressed curiosity about those who assist in enforcing this system, questioning their mindset and character. The Iranian filmmaker expressed happiness at returning to this cinematic event, having first participated in Cannes 20 years ago. Rasoulof, who has several other film projects in the works, stated that his main concern was that he could not make films in prison, which is why he decided to leave Iran. He remarked, "I decided to finish what was left first, and then if the Islamic Republic still existed and these sentences remained, then it would be time to go to prison." Since the recent nationwide protests in Iran, which are the largest unrest since the 1979 revolution, security forces of the Islamic Republic have suppressed dissenters, including filmmakers, artists, cultural figures, and athletes. Rasoulof is a well-known figure at the Cannes Festival, making his presence at this artistic event significant. He had been banned from working and leaving the country for seven years but secretly made films underground in Iran. Hamid Soleiman-Zadeh, an Iranian writer and film critic currently at Cannes, told Voice of America, "The presence of Mohammad Rasoulof at the festival is as important as the screening of his film. The Cannes red carpet has never hosted a filmmaker who has fled his homeland under necessity and hardship in less than a month, and the significance of this event far outweighs the ideas presented in his film." He added, "The troubles Rasoulof has endured as a filmmaker over the past decade have been nothing short of a tragic saga, from heavy sentences and arrests to medieval restrictions." According to Soleiman-Zadeh, Rasoulof "has always revealed stories and events that play an enlightening role in how we engage with social cinema. After watching his films, we always think about what we would do if we were in the fate of his characters, which touches a part of the audience's existence that fewer filmmakers have aimed for." This writer and film critic stated, "Regardless of the type of film he makes and its quality, Rasoulof is a filmmaker who has become immortalized in the history of Iranian cinema through an act of protest, placing him on a path that is both irreversible and honorable." On May 13, Rasoulof announced his secret exit from Iran from an undisclosed location. The appellate court of the Islamic Republic's judiciary had recently upheld his eight-year prison sentence. He referred to the repeated confiscation of his passport and the raids by Islamic Republic agents on his home over the years, addressing the authorities by saying that he has now left the geographical borders of Iran "under the boots of your religious tyranny," like "millions of Iranians who were forced to leave Iran due to your oppression and brutality," and is now a resident of "cultural Iran." In his Instagram post, Rasoulof emphasized, "I must quickly finish the final technical stages of post-production for The Fig Seed of Temples." The Iranian director concluded by thanking all those who "kindly, selflessly, and sometimes at the risk of their own safety" helped him "cross the border and reach a safe point," adding, "I am alive to tell the story." Mohammad Rasoulof is a prominent critic of the Islamic Republic and has been imprisoned multiple times for his anti-government statements. This report draws on reports from Reuters and Voice of America.