Jafar Panahi Sentenced To Six Years In Jail, Can’t Make Films Or Leave Iran For 20 Years

Jafar Panahi, the long embattled Iranian filmmaker who earlier this year was arrested for his support of the dissenting political party in his native Iran, has been sentenced to six years in jail, and has also been banned from making films, and even leaving Iran, for 20 years.

This news comes from the filmmaker’s lawyer, Farideh Gheirat (hat tip to AFP for the story), who stated that ‘Mr. Panahi has been sentenced to six years in jail on a charge of (participating) in a gathering and carrying out propaganda against the stystem.’

Gheirat also announced that she plans on appealing the ruling, saying that ‘his social rights, which include a ban on making movies, writing scripts, foreign travel and giving interviews to domestic and foreign media, have been taken away for 20 years.’

Prior to his arrest, Panahi was working on a new film with a young Iranian filmmaker, Mohammad Rasoulof, who has also been sentenced to six years in jail, on ‘similar charges.’

Panahi was originally arrested back at the start of March, and was released after undergoing a hunger strike in protest of both his detention, and the conditions of that very detention.   Since then, names such as Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese have come out in support of the filmmaker, as well as entire entities like the Cannes Film Festival, and the entirety of the French government.

While this site has been rather vocal in their support for the filmmaker, this is a case in which personal opinion is just out of place. This is in no way a story that calls for a personal opinion, even if there is a ridiculous debate to have.   This is a story about a single nation coming down on a pair of artists, for fear that their art may spark something wholly outside what the ruling party of Iran is looking for when it comes to ‘art.’ This is about freedoms being stripped from an artist for what he produces.   In a world where we have filmmakers heading to Twitter or to podcasts to complain about studios being intrusive or critics being out of whack with their style, this is a sad story of art becoming far too dangerous for a nation to handle.

Hopefully Panahi is able to get this ruling appealed.   We will continue to follow this story as it happens.

Source: AFP