Famed Iranian director sentenced to prison over Cannes Film Festival screening

By Leah Asmelash, CNN

(CNN) — Famed Iranian director Saeed Roustaee has been sentenced to six months in prison, according to local reports, after presenting his most-recent film at the Cannes International Film Festival last year.

Roustaee screened the film “Leila’s Brothers,” a movie about a family in Tehran trying to make ends meet, in competition for the Palme d’Or, the highest prize awarded at Cannes. (The trophy was awarded to Ruben Ostlund’s satire “Triangle of Sadness.)

Roustaee and “Leila’s Brother” producer Javad Noruzbegi were sentenced to six months for airing the film and “contributing to the opposition’s propaganda against the Islamic regime,” according to Iranian media. The two will each serve about nine days in prison, with the remainder of their sentences suspended over five years, according to the AFP. They will also not be allowed to make movies during this period.

CNN has reached out to the Iranian Foreign Ministry for comment but has not received a response.

News of the sentence has received criticism internationally, most notably from American director Martin Scorsese, who shared a petition to help Roustaee started by his daughter, Francesca Scorsese. “Please sign and share this petition seeking justice… so he can continue to be a force of good in the world,” both the petition and an Instagram post shared by Scorsese read. “His voice needs to be heard.”

“Leila’s Brothers” was previously banned in Iran, as officials ruled the film “broke the rules by being entered at international film festivals without authorisation,” the AFP reported.

Despite the ban, “Leila’s Brothers” has received critical acclaim. Though it did not win the Palme d’Or, the film won two other prizes at Cannes, and was nominated for Best International Film at the Munich International Film Festival.

This isn’t the first time Iran has imprisoned filmmakers. Last year, acclaimed director Jafar Panahi was arrested after inquiring about the detainments of two fellow Iranian directors, who had been imprisoned after protesting against violence by security forces toward civilians in the wake of a deadly building collapse. Their arrests were “part of a fresh crackdown on peaceful dissent,” according to Human Rights Watch.

“Unable or unwilling to tackle the many severe challenges facing Iran, the government has resorted to its repressive reflex of arresting popular critics,” said Tara Sepehri Far, senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch, in a statement last year. “There is no reason to believe these recent arrests are anything but cynical moves to deter popular outrage at the government’s widespread failures.”

Panahi was released in February, two days after beginning a hunger strike.

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