Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulov, who in Could 2024 escaped from Iran to Europe after receiving a jail sentence from the nation’s authorities for making his drama “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” has issued a powerful assertion underlining the importance of fellow dissident auteur Jafar Panahi scooping the Cannes Palme d’Or on Saturday for his revenge drama “It Was Simply an Accident.”

“This victory is an sudden and highly effective blow to the equipment of repression within the Islamic Republic,” Rasoulov, who lives in Germany, stated in a joint assertion made on Sunday with producers Kaveh Farnam and Farzad Pak of the Iranian Unbiased Filmmakers Affiliation (IIFMA).

“We congratulate Jafar Panahi; his household, who’ve stood by him with persistence and resilience over time; and the forged and crew of this movie, who—by solidarity, belief, and braveness—resisted threats and strain from safety forces throughout its tough and clandestine manufacturing,” the assertion added.

“We’re heartened to know that the movie will quickly be screened extensively the world over, and we have now little question that ‘It Was Simply an Accident’ will attain Iranian audiences earlier than lengthy—exterior the official cinema networks, by the Web,” it continued.

Panahi, who was in a position to journey to Cannes to advertise his surreptitiously shot movie after being incarcerated twice for “propaganda towards the state” and banned from leaving Iran for greater than 14 years, made an impassioned plea after being given the Palme.

“I imagine that is the second to name on all folks, all Iranians, with all their differing opinions, wherever they’re on the earth — in Iran or overseas — to permit me to ask for one factor,” Panahi stated, talking by an interpreter.

“Let’s put aside all issues, all variations. What’s most vital now could be our nation and the liberty of our nation,” he added. “Allow us to be a part of forces. No-one ought to dare inform us what sort of garments we should always put on, what we should always do, or what we should always not do” Panahi continued whereas sharing the stage with the forged of his movie, together with a number of unveiled actresses.

“It Was Simply an Accident” is a couple of group of former political prisoners who kidnap a person whom they imagine to be their former interrogator and torturer. The movie, which the director in an interview with Selection stated was impressed by his experiences in an Iranian jail, has now given Panahi, who’s 64, the uncommon distinction of getting gained the highest prize in any respect three main European movie festivals, after taking Berlin’s Golden Bear for “Taxi” in 2015 and the Golden Lion at Venice for “The Circle” in 2000. Panahi was not in a position to attend these festivals because of his ban which was lifted in April 2023.

Requested by French information company AFP if he was fearful about returning to Iran after successful the highest movie prize on the Cannes for “It Was Simply an Accident,” he replied: “By no means. Tomorrow we’re leaving.”

In the meantime, because the dissident director heads again to Iran, Iranian media are largely ignoring Jafar Panahi’s momentous Cannes Palme d’Or victory.

Although Iran’s state information company IRNA trumpeted Panahi’s award with an image of him and the headline “The world’s largest movie pageant made historical past for Iranian cinema,” information that Panahi scooped the Palme didn’t seem on the web sites of the nation’s high English-language information retailers, Tehran Instances and Iran Each day on Sunday. As a substitute, the latter printed an merchandise saying that “The Final of the Whale Shark,” a documentary by Iranian filmmaker Ramtin Balef, might be screening in competitors on the upcoming Raindance Movie Competition in London.

Under is the complete assertion from Mohammad Rasoulov, Kaveh Farnam and Farzad Pak:

The Palme d’Or awarded to A Easy Accident marks the start of a brand new wave of success for a cinema that has emerged from the guts of prohibition and censorship. 

This victory is an sudden and highly effective blow to the equipment of repression within the Islamic Republic.

We congratulate Jafar Panahi; his household, who’ve stood by him with persistence and resilience over time; and the forged and crew of this movie, who—by solidarity, belief, and braveness—resisted threats and strain from safety forces throughout its tough and clandestine manufacturing.

We’re heartened to know that the movie will quickly be screened extensively the world over, and we have now little question that A Easy Accident will attain Iranian audiences earlier than lengthy—exterior the official cinema networks, by the web.

After years of perseverance, resistance, and inventive battle by generations of filmmakers, the decaying and collapsing system of censorship has been pushed again. Iran’s censorship-defying cinema is now extra alive and deeply rooted than ever. We imagine in the way forward for this cinema, and we’re assured that many Iranian filmmakers—particularly the youthful technology—are searching for new paths to create works which are free, humane, and liberating.