Court upholds Jafar Panahi's appalling prison sentence

AFP reports that a Tehran appeals court has upheld a six-year jail sentence and 20-year filmmaking and travel ban against international award-winning Iranian director Jafar Panahi.

The government-run newspaper Iran confirmed the ruling in its Saturday edition, saying: "The charges he was sentenced for are acting against national security and propaganda against the regime."

Panahi was convicted in December last year over a documentary he tried to make about the unrest that followed the disputed 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

A six-year jail sentence against another Iranian who co-directed that film, Mohammad Rasoulof, 38, was reduced to one year in the same appeal.

Panahi, 51, has won a slew of foreign awards for his films. But many are banned in Iran where authorities are unhappy with his satirical portrayal of everyday life in the Islamic republic.

One of Panahi's latest productions was a documentary entitled "This is not a Film," depicting a day in his life as he waited to hear the verdict from the appeal. It was screened at the Cannes film festival in May.

Panahi's upheld sentence orders him to six years behind bars, plus a 20-year ban on directing or writing for movies, a 20-year ban on giving interviews, and a 20-year ban on travel except for the Hajj holy pilgrimage to Mecca or for medical treatment.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, in January said punishment such as that meted out to Panahi was "not compatible with the human rights commitments that Iran herself has subscribed to in several international conventions."

Repression of Iran's domestic film production has intensified since Ahmadinejad's 2009 re-election. More than a dozen directors or actors have been arrested and sometimes severely sentenced since the middle of this year for "propaganda" against the regime, including several documentary makers accused of giving a "black image" of Iran.

Early this month, Iranian actress Marzieh Vafamehr was sentenced to a year in jail and 90 lashes for her role in Australian-produced film "My Tehran for Sale," about the limits imposed on artists in the Islamic republic.

This sentence is an absolute disgrace that underlines the bankrupt nature of the Iranian regime.

Berlin Film Festival to honour Panahi

The Guardian reports that the Berlin Film Festival is to honour Jafar Panahi with screenings of his movies and a panel discussion on censorship in Iran,

Dieter Kosslick, the festival's director, said Panahi had been invited to sit on the 2011 jury to decide the Golden Bear prize for best film prior to his imprisonment. Last month he was sentenced to six years in jail in Iran and banned from leaving the country, shooting films or scriptwriting for 20 years. "We are going to use every opportunity to protest against this drastic verdict," said Kosslick.

Panahi's prizewinning film Offside, about girls who dress up as men to sneak into a football stadium, will be shown along with a number of the director's other features. The film-maker has himself previously won awards at Chicago, Cannes and Berlin.

Meanwhile the rest of the cinema world seems to be pretty silent about Panahi’s plight. The sentence handed down by the Iranian courts was an absolute disgrace.

Film makers protest Panahi jailing

A crowd of around 50 filmmakers and actors gathered on Monday in front of the Iranian embassy to protest against prison sentences handed out to directors Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof.

Defying reezing temperature, the protestors watched one of Panahi's films on a huge screen erected opposite the Iranian embassy.

Where was this protest – Sadly it was not London but Sarajevo

Director Jasmila Zbanic, who won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Festival' Grbavica said ""It is terrible that in the 21st century there are fascist systems that do not allow freedom of speech, of expression, of art. I came to provide my support to my colleague Panahi who I have met in Berlin. I really feel bad because of what happened to him,"

Panahi's movie "White balloon" opened the first Sarajevo film festival in 1995,

The Bosnian film community put their counterparts elsewhere in the world to shame.

Iranian regimes sentences Jafar Panahi to six years

Today’s Guardian reports that Director Jafar Panahi has been sentenced to a draconian sent2nce by the Iranian authorities, simply for his opposition to the current regime. He will ser a six year prison sentence. He is also banned from directing and producing films for the next 20 years.

Panahi, was convicted of colluding in gathering and making propaganda against the regime. He is also banned from
writing any scripts, travelling abroad and also giving any interviews to the media including foreign and domestic news organisations

Panahi won the Camera d'Or at the Cannes film festival in 1995 for his debut feature, The White Balloon, and the Golden Lion at Venice for his 2000 drama, The Circle. His other films include Crimson Gold and Offside. He is highly regarded around the world but his films are banned at home.

Hamid Dabashi, a professor of Iranian studies at Columbia University, said "This is a catastrophe for Iran's cinema," he said. "Panahi is now exactly in the most creative phase of his life and by silencing him at this sensitive time, they are killing his art and talent…What Iran is doing with the artists, is exactly similar to what Taliban did in Afghanistan. This is exactly like bombing Buddha statues by the Taliban, Iran is doing the same with its artists."

The regime has handed out utterly unjustifiable sentences to far too many protestors. Panahi is just one of them, but one with a very high international profile. I doubt that Ahmadinejad and his rabble are in the mood for leniency so there is little chance that he will be released any time soon. That does not mean there should not be pressure on the regime on behalf of Panahi and so many others unjustly imprisoned

Jafar Panahi on Hunger Strike

According to Bloomberg Business Week, leading Iranian film maker Jafar Panahi has gone on a hunger- strike to protest his ill-treatment.

Jafar Panahi, who is being held in Tehran’s Evin jail, began to fast May 16 after officials threatened to arrest his family and forced him and other inmates to stand outdoors naked for one and a half hours, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said in an e-mailed statement.

“I swear upon the cinema in which I believe, that I will not stop my hunger strike until my demands are met,” Panahi, who has been detained since March, said in a letter released by the New York-based group. The filmmaker, 49, demanded access to his family, a lawyer and release on bail.

Panahi is an award-winning director whose films explore life under the rule of Iran’s Shiite Muslim clerics. Several of his films, which have been criticized by the authorities for depicting a negative side of Iran, have been banned from being shown in the country.

Panahi’s prohibited films include “Crimson Gold,” which looks at the privileges of Iran’s upper class through the eyes of a pizza-delivery man and won the Prix Un Certain Regard at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. Also banned in Iran is Panahi’s “The Circle,” which portrays the harsh aspects of life for several women in the Islamic nation. It won the Golden Lion award at the 2000 Venice Film Festival. Panahi won the second-highest award at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival with “Offside,” a comic tale about a government ban on women and girls attending soccer games.

Panahi had been briefly detained in July last year after he attended a ceremony at a cemetery to commemorate Neda Agha- Soltan, an opposition supporter killed during a post-election demonstration.

The charges against Panahi include making a movie without a permit and wearing a green scarf indicating support for the opposition “Green Movement,” in a film festival abroad, his wife, Tahereh Saeedi, said April 12.
Jafar Panahi’s films are truly excellent and I would stromgly recommend them to anyone. But this is by the by. The Iranian authorities treatment of Panahi is an utter disgrace. The charges against him are as flimsy as those levelled against other protestors.

The Iranian authorities are using a sledgehammer to kill any dissent even in cases describing it an offence against God.. But this will not work in the end. I have every confidence that the people will prevail. Not tomorrow, not next week but the Mullahs will be consigned to the dustbin

Now Jafar Panahi is arrested

According to the BBC one of Iran’s most acclaimed film directors was arrested along with members of his family. Plainclothes police broke into Mr Panahi's family home and arrested him, his wife and daughter and 15 other guests, his son Panah told reporters.

The Tehran prosecutor's office has confirmed the arrest to reporters but denied it was connected to politics. The arrest of Jafar Panahi is not because he is an artist or for political reason," prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi told the semi-official ISNA news agency. He is accused of some crimes and was arrested with another person following an order by a judge."

However, last year a travel ban was imposed on Mr Panahi by the authorities after he appeared wearing green - the colour of opposition supporters - at the Montreal film festival. He was also briefly arrested after attending a memorial to student Neda Agha Soltan, killed at an opposition rally last June.

Given his outspoken opposition to the regime I remain to be convinced that his arrest was not on political grounds