A WORLD OF SCI-FI HONOURED AT SYDNEY SCIENCE FICTION FILM FESTIVAL

Two stunning works of artistry and fantasy from young filmmakers from the Middle East have taken top honours at the Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival award ceremony, held overnight at the Actors Centre Australia in the city’s inner-west.

The Ron Cobb Best Feature Film prize was awarded to SCALES, Shahad Ameen’s monochromatic masterpiece of patriarchal defiance hailing from the U.A.E.; the film was also nominated for Best Director and Best Lead Actress in a Feature Film. The Best Short Film honour went to the night’s only dual honouree, THE FABRICATED, from young Iranian director Ali Katmiri. The alternate-reality thriller also earned Best Lead Actress in a Short Film for Sonya Esmaeeli, whose acceptance speech (provided only moments before the event) acknowledged fellow students of acting the world over.

The festival’s goal of bringing a vast international science fiction program roster to Sydney audiences was reinforced, with movies from Italy, Spain, France, Japan and Australia all factoring in the night’s list of winners. Best Lead Actress in a Feature Film went to Denise Fantucci, star of Italian director Emanuela Rossi’s DARKNESS, for her role as the defiant eldest child of a father determined to keep three sisters away from a world he assures them is a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Spanish actor Javier Botet, whose remarkable physique and gentle performance was a perfect fit for the alien visitor in co-directors Juan Gonzalez and Nando Martinez’s QUEEN OF THE LIZARDS, won Best Lead Actor in a Feature.

Directorial honours went to Yuichi Kondo for A.I-themed romancer RYOKO’S QUBIT SUMMER, already bearing the laurels of several festival wins throughout the year; and, to Baptiste Rouvere, whose ANONYMOUS ANIMALS is building momentum as the most buzzed-about horror/fantasy offering on the global circuit.

The biggest cheers of the evening were, of course, saved for the Australian winners. Genre legend Vernon Wells, an iconic film presence since he terrified audiences 39 years ago as the mohawked ‘Wez’ in George Miller’s Mad Max 2, earned the Best Actor in a Short Film gong for STARSPAWN: OVERTURE, the alien abduction action/thriller that also earned nominations for Best Short Film and Best Director (Short) for Travis Bain.

The all-important Audience Award was bestowed upon the inaugural festival’s Opening Night pic, Mark Toia’s killer-robot action epic, MONSTERS OF MAN, which makes its global online platform debut on December 8. 

The full list of winners and nominees are:    

BEST LEAD ACTRESS in a Feature Film
WINNER: DENISE TANTUCCI (‘Stella’ in DARKNESS; pictured, below)
YUHO YAMASHITA (‘Stereo’ in FONOTUNE: AN ELECTRIC FAIRYTALE)
ZARLIA CHISHOLM (‘Maisey’ in STRANGEVILLE)
MIYUU TESHIMA (‘Arika’ in HIDE & SNIFF)
BRUNA CUSI (‘Berta’ in QUEEN OF THE LIZARDS)
BASSIMA HAJJAR (‘Hayat’ in SCALES)

BEST LEAD ACTRESS in a Short Film
WINNER: SONYA ESMAEELI (‘Copy 1’ in THE FABRICATED)
AMELIA CONWAY (‘Alyssa’ in ALYSSA)
EMILY WROLSON (‘Z’ in WAKE ME UP)
SHEILA IVY TRAISTER (‘Sheila’ in REWIND)
NURIA DEULOFEU (‘Niky’ in POLVOTRON 500)
LISE RISOM OLSEN (‘Q’ in Q: GHOSTLY REMOTE EFFECT)

BEST LEAD ACTOR in a Feature Film
WINNER: JAVIER BOTET (‘Javi’ in QUEEN OF THE LIZARDS)
FINT (‘Mono’ in FONOTUNE: AN ELECTRIC FAIRYTALE)
DAVID COOK (’Bruce’ in STRANGEVILLE)
VITO LEO (‘Myles’ in STRANGEVILLE)
KOUTA FUDAUCHI (‘Kouka’ in HIDE & SNIFF)
RINAL MUKHAMETOV (‘Victor’/’The Architect’ in COMA)

BEST LEAD ACTOR in a Short Film
WINNER: VERNON WELLS (‘Randolph’ in STARSPAWN: OVERTURE; pictured, below)
DAVID DOUKHAN (‘Isaac’ in TRANSFERT)
AYMEN BEN HAMIDA (‘Slim’ in MAGNUM OPUS)
LEVI BURGESS (‘Brodie’ in MILK)
DAVID GYASI (‘Elijah’ in LIVING THINGS)
KRIS MAVERICKO (‘Kurt’ in AFTER_LIFE)

BEST DIRECTOR Short Film
WINNER: YUICHI KONDO (RYOKO’S QUBIT SUMMER, Japan)
MERIAM KHEMMASSI (MAGNUM OPUS, Tunisia)
TRAVIS BAIN (STARSPAWN: OVERTURE, Australia)
ALI KATMIRI (THE FABRICATED, Iran)
RICHARD DE CARVALHO (A BLASTER IN THE RIGHT HANDS, Australia)
TRISH HARNETIAUX (YOU WOULDN’T UNDERSTAND, U.S.A)

BEST SHORT FILM
WINNER: THE FABRICATED (Iran)
SPACE PROBE PASSENGER (Poland)
RYOKO’S QUBIT SUMMER (Japan)
AFTER_LIFE (Singapore)
STARSPAWN: OVERTURE (Australia)
THE DAR(k)WIN PROJECT (France)

BEST DIRECTOR Feature Film
WINNER: BAPTISTE ROUVERE (ANONYMOUS ANIMALS, France)
FINT (FONOTUNE: AN ELECTRIC FAIRYTALE, Germany)
EMANUELA ROSSI (DARKNESS, Italy)
KOUSUKE HISHINUMA (HIDE & SNIFF, Japan)
JUAN GONZALEZ & NANDO MARTINEZ (THE QUEEN OF THE LIZARDS, Spain)
SHAHAD AMEEN (SCALES, UAE)

BEST FEATURE FILM
WINNER: SCALES (UAE)
MONSTERS OF MAN (Australia)
DARKNESS (Italy)
FONOTUNE: AN ELECTRIC FAIRYTALE (Germany)
ANONYMOUS ANIMALS (France)
STRANGEVILLE (Australia)
HIDE & SNIFF (Japan)
THE QUEEN OF THE LIZARDS (Spain)
COMA (Russia)
TUNE INTO THE FUTURE (Luxembourg)

AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER:
MONSTERS OF MAN (Australia, Dir: Mark Toia)

KINOSCOPE STRANDS, NEW TALENT INITIATIVE FORGING AHEAD ONLINE AT SARAJEVO FILM FEST

At 26, the Sarajevo Film Festival (SFF) is still a young festival by European standards. Youthful exuberance permeates the 2020 program, with no strand more indicative of progressive, cutting-edge curation than the Kinoscope selection, which this year presents a 15 film roster of the best in international cinema via the festivals’ recently-launched online portal.

The SFF Directorate moved from its planned hybrid festival to a wholly virtual event when the Civil Protection Headquarters of Sarajevo Canton and the Federal Ministry of Health issued a COVID-19 action plan on August 4 that included "recommendations to the population in the Federation of [Bosnia and Herzegovina] to avoid public gatherings and limit their movement due to the deteriorating epidemiological situation.” 

Festival organisers, who had employed measures to meet the August 14 launch that allowed for open-air screenings and adhered to social-distancing rules, reacted immediately. The full program, including the Opening night film Concentrate Grandma from director Pjer Žalica (pictured, right), moved to ondemand.sff.ba and will be available to all residents of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its neighbours.

In addition to the core In Focus strand, which presents ten features from the region, and the 49 films vying for honours in the Competitive Programs, the SFF Kinoscope highlights contemporary themes and global film trends. Established in 2012, Kinoscope is programmed by producer and curation veteran Mathilde Henrot and Alessandro Raja (pictured, below), founder of the Festival Scope platform. In 2020, the pair have selected works representing 14 countries, including eight unique visions from women directors.

Under the ‘Kinoscope’ banner, SFF will present Guillaume Brac’s French road-trip comedy, À l'abordage (All Hands on Deck), starring Eric Nantchouang and Asma Messaoudene; Hong Sang-soo’s minimalist drama Domangchin Yeoja (The Woman Who Ran), winner of the 2020 Berlinale Silver Bear for Best Director; the Danish crime family drama Kød & blod (Wildland), from Jeanette Nordahl; Gagarin, the breakout Cannes 2020 hit from co-directors Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh’ and, Kitty Green’s understated but blistering post-Weinstein/#MeToo statement, The Assistant, with Julia Garner.

‘Kinoscope Real’ offers five works of potent social relevance, presented across a diverse range of genres. The ability for cinema to bring hope to a family in wartorn Donbas is documented in Iryna Tsilyk’s Ukrainian/Lithuanian co-production, Zemlia Blakytna Niby Apel'syn (The Earth is Blue as an Orange); fellow Ukrainian Valentyn Vasyanovych’s bleak, PTSD-themed scifi-er, Atlantis; Garagenvolk (Garage People), director Natalija Yefimkina’s insight into the garage-dwelling communities of Russia’s frozen north; Camilo Restrepo’s revenge thriller Los Conductos (Encounters), a French/Colombian/Brazilian co-pro that chronicles of a man seeking redemption through the killing of a sect leader; and, from the enclaved kingdom of Lesotho in South Africa, the spiritually uplifting eco-drama This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection from filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese.

Finally, the artistically fearless films of the ‘Kinoscope Surreal’ selection. These include Shirley, Josephine Decker’s descent into the mad literary mind of author Shirley Jackson, featuring a vivid turn in the title role by Elizabeth Moss; Noah Hutton’s low-tech scifi vision of a man-vs-robot workplace, Lapsis; UK director Rose Glass’ acclaimed thriller Saint Maud, a study in the dangers of hardline religious beliefs as seen through a complex female relationship; the Australian festival hit Relic, starring Emily Mortimer and Bella Heathcote as the mother and daughter who must cope with the horrific manifestations of a matriarch’s dementia; and, South Korean auteur Kim Yong-Hoon’s bag-of-cash mystery/thriller, Beasts that Cling to Straw (pictured, right).

At time of publishing, all these films will be available to Bosnia and Herzegovina residents via the festival screening platform. Also scheduled to be broadcast online will be accompanying programs, lectures and interviews with authors, including the 14th edition of the industry development program Talents Sarajevo, featuring 62 young candidates chosen from the filmmaking communities of Southeast Europe and the South Caucasus.

The SARAJEVO FILM FESTIVAL will commence August 14 at 8.00pm CEST and run until August 21. Visit the event’s Official Website for further details.

THE LIST: NINE GREAT FIRST-NATION FILMS

Indigenous history and culture has too often been poorly misrepresented on film or filtered through well-meaning but simplified stereotypes. As more and more Indigenous filmmakers emerge, all audiences enjoy the benefits of losing themselves in an abundance of stories drawn from lived experience. Here are nine standouts...

U.S.A.: SMOKE SIGNALS (Dir: Chris Eyre, 1998; pictured, above) A road-trip drama that connects the histories and destinies of Victor (Adam Beach) and Thomas (Evan Adams), who grew up together along the Spokane River on the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation. Victor must retrieve his father, but Thomas is the only one who can help him get there. Of Cheyenne/Arapaho heritage, Eyre crafted a film now considered a contemporary classic, beloved by Native American audiences for its non-stereotypical characterisations and understanding of modern reservation living. In 2018, the film was placed on the National Film Registry by the National Film Preservation Board.

BRAZIL: THE LEGEND OF UBIRAJARA (Dir: André Luiz Oliveira, 1975) Son of an Araguaia chief, Ubirajara (Tatau) spies Araci (Taíse Costa) on the shore. He pursues her, leading to a battle with Pojuca (Roberto Bonfim), the mightiest Tocantim warrior. But Ubirajara and Araci have fallen in love; when the truth is revealed, a war breaks out between the two villages. Spoken entirely in Karaja, this pre-Columbian adventure is considered to be one of the most naturalistic film portrayals of tribal life.

CANADA: ATANARJUAT THE FAST RUNNER (Dir: Zacharias Kunuk, 2001) Centuries ago, in the Canadian Arctic, Atuat (Sylvia Ivalu) is promised to the tribal leader’s son Oki (Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq), but instead falls in love with the good-natured Atanarjuat (Natar Ungalaaq). Oki learns of their love and sets about enacting a terrible revenge on Atanarjuat. The first Inuktitut-language feature film, it is the only Canadian film to win the Camera d'Or for best first feature film at the Cannes Film Festival. The now iconic ‘nude run’ over the sea of ice left Ungalaaq with deep cuts all over his bare feet.

ARGENTINA: LA NACIÓN OCULTA (Dir: Juan Carlos Martínez, 2011) Ñaalec (Fabián Valdez), a disenchanted Moqoit college student, seeks to deepen his connection to culture. He travels to the Nanaicalo Nqote ("Eye of the Dragon"), a sacred lake whose water gave people the power of the gods. This docudrama is part of a series of community-created films supported by Cinematography Education and Production Center (CEFREC) led by Iván Sanjinés, son of legendary Bolivian filmmaker Jorge Sanjinés.

NEW ZEALAND: MAURI (Dir: Merata Mita, 1988; pictured, right) Pioneering filmmaker Merata Mita became the first Māori woman to write and direct a dramatic feature with Mauri (translated as ‘life force’). Set around a love triangle in a small East Coast village, it explores cultural tensions, identity, and changing societal ways. Along with Ngāti (1987), Mauri was at the forefront of the emerging Māori screen industry. The crew numbered 33 Māori craftspeople (indigenous artist Ralph Hotere was production designer); the cast included the great Anzac Wallace (Utu, 1983; The Quiet Earth, 1985) and Māori activist Eva Rickard. A NZFC-financed restoration screened at the 2019 Venice Biennale.

COLOMBIA: EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT (Dir: Ciro Guerra, 2015) The story of the relationship between Karamakate (Nilbio Torres), an Amazonian shaman and lone survivor, and two scientists, who work together over the course of 40 years to search the Amazon for a sacred healing plant. The first Colombian film to earn a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination and utilising four indigenous tongues (Cubeo, Wanano, Tikuna and Uitoto), the film derives its title from the great Amazon River, which carries the lead characters deep into the jungle. The regional government decorated the non-indigenous Guerra with the Order of the Inírida Flower for "exalting the respect and value of the indigenous populations”.

MACEDONIA: HONEYLAND (Dirs: Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov, 2019) The last female bee-hunter in Europe must save her bees and return the natural balance to her hives when a family of nomadic beekeepers threaten her livelihood. Nominated for two Academy Awards, the heartbreaking plight of traditional beekeeper Hatidze Muratova became a cause celebre on the 2019 arthouse circuit. The production shot for nearly three years and accumulated over 400 hours of footage. After the first wave of festival wins, the producers bought Hatidze a house with water and electricity close to the capital of Skopje; she still tends to her bees several days a week.

SAMOA: THE ORATOR (Dir: Tusi Tamasese, 2011). Samoan-born, NZ-trained director Tamasese made his debut with the island nation’s first feature film in the Samoan language with an indigenous cast. Set amidst lush tropical jungles and hand-toiled farmlands, it relates the outsider’s journey of Saili (Fa'afiaula Sanote), a little person and taro farmer, whose destiny is derailed when he is denied his father's chiefly status, threatening his family plantation. Tamasese takes care to respectfully depict Samoan family bonds (fa'aSamoa) and traditions such as evening prayer time (sa) and ritual atonement (ifoga) in a film that unfolds at a gentle pace but remains dramatically compelling.

AUSTRALIA: RADIANCE (Dir: Rachel Perkins, 1998) To mourn their mother’s passing, Aboriginal sisters Nona (Deborah Mailman) and Cressy (Rachael Maza) return to their childhood home where their third sister, Mae (Trisha Morton-Thomas), cared for the matriarch in her final years. With time to talk, drink and fight, the sister’s drag family secrets out that have festered for generations. A turning point in Australian storytelling, Perkin’s directorial debut tackled heritage, legacy and family in a contemporary setting. Fellow debutant Mailman earned the AFI Best Actress award.

ARMENIA

At the turn of the century, filmmaking in Armenia was all but impossible due to the war torn countryside. In a short space of time, two horrific events impacted the population – the indiscriminate massacre of christian Armenians by Ottoman forces from 1894-96, and the horrific 1914-15 genocide of Armenian nationals by the Turkish rulers, a slaughter that resulted in over 1million Armenian deaths.

Through this period, as silent cinema was taking the world by storm, the besieged people of Armenia were in no state to make or screen films. The one truly landmark film that addressed the Armenian experience was Ravished Armenia (a.k.a. Auction of Soles), a 1919 American film directed by Oscar Apfel, based upon the autobiography of its leading lady, Arshaluys Mardiganian. The film became an international sensation for its shocking depiction of the horrors of the genocide, included the flogging of Armenian women and their nude crucifixion.

On April 16, 1923, the establishment of the Armenian State Committee on Cinema (or ‘Goskino’) represented a bold statement by the ruling Soviet government. Young Russian filmmakers such as Hamo Bek-Nazaryan, Patvakan Barkhudaryan, Levon Kalantar and Amasi Martirosyan forged a distinctive Armenian cinema with films such as the melodrama Namus (1925; pictured, right); the epics Zare (1927) and Khaspush (1928); and, the comedies Shor And Shor-Shor (1926), Mexican Diplomats (1932) and Kikos (1931). The first feature-length Armenian documentary was produced in this period, I. Kraslavsky’s pro-Soviet 1924 work Soviet Armenia, focussing on the nation’s reconstruction in the wake of World War I.

By the late 1920’s, the full-scale studio Armenkino is in operation and the first ‘talkie’, Hamo Bek-Nazaryan’s drama Pepo (1935; pictured, below right) is a hit both domestically and abroad. But for much of the 1930s and 1940s, Armenian filmmaking stagnates. The totalitarian regime strictly controls the content of all art during this period; film output is reduced, with the rare local releases primarily examining the history of conflict of the region (Zangezur, 1938; David-Bek, 1944; and, Aleksandr Dovzhenko’s documentary Native Country, 1945).

It would not be until the mid 1950’s that Armenian cinema began producing independent, ambitious films. The ‘bigscreen epic’ returned, usually centred on such figures as Simon Arshaki Ter-Petrosian, a.k.a. ‘Kamo’; his heroics were depicted in such films as Erazm Karamyan and Stepan Kevorkov’s Personally Known (1958), the first of a trilogy of films about the Bolshevik revolutionary. Artashes Hay-Artyan’s Northern Rainbow (1960) was an early example of a braver political voice in Armenian cinema with its depiction of the 1828 Russian-Persian war and the activities of Russian writer Alexander Griboedov.

A decisive, strong Armenian cinema emerges more fully in the 1960’s, when short filmmakers undertook often incendiary statements about the ruling government. Avdo’s Car, a short that boldly interprets Soviet policies and actions while in power, is censored and forbidden from public screenings; Broken Promise, Tzhvzhik, Fired Lever and The Master And The Servant rile authorities but inspire artists and intellectuals.

Soon, features are embracing the notion that Armenia has suffered ‘between the hammer and the anvil’ in local conflicts - Khoren Abrahamyan’s Brother Saroyans (1969), Grigori Melik-Avakyan’s Seven Songs About Armenia (1967), Henrik Malyan’s We and Our Mountains (1969) and Laert Vagharshyan’s documentary Martiros Saryan (1965) all depict a strong, brave nation defying the impact on its borders of its warring neighbours.

The most important filmmaker in Armenian cinema history came from this period – Sergey Parajanov (pictured, right). Having broken free of the systemic control of Armenian cinema with his 1965 film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, he exploded onto the world stage with his groundbreaking film The Color Of Pomegranate (1969), a re-edit of his previously banned feature Sayat Nova. However, following its breakout success, Parajanov was persecuted by Soviet officials for his pronounced bisexuality and subversive art and would ultimately serve four years in jail, despite global efforts to free him led by such notables as Yves Saint Laurent, Françoise Sagan, Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Luis Buñuel, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni and Andrei Tarkovsky. Parajanov would not direct another feature until The Legend of Suram Fortress, in 1985.

Infrastructure serving Armenia’s film industry receives funding through the 1970s, with both Armenfilm and the Studio of Documentary Films opening state-of-the-art studio space in Yerevan. Armenian cinema of the period expands its narratives, offering social realism (Arman Manaryan’s Our Daily Water, 1976) and the growth of homegrown comedy (Edmond Keosayan’s The Men, 1973; Nerses Hovhannisyan’s Bride of the North, 1975; Dmitri Kesayants’ The Soldier and the Elephant, 1978, and A Man From Olympus, 1976).

As societal pressures stabilize and the economy grows, so to does Armenian cinema. The 1980s launched with Sergey Israyelyan's drama Gikor (1982; pictured, right), based upon Hovhannes Tumanyan's oft-told tale of a boy’s coming-of-age hardships (it was previously filmed in 1934). The decade solidified the reputation of such talents as Albert Mkrtchyan (The Good Half of Life, 1979; The Song of the Old Days, 1982; The Tango of Our Childhood, 1985), leading to the confident emergence of new talents in the 1990s. The reputation of the sector was at an all-time high thanks to such works as Harutyun Khachatryan’s Wind of Forgetfulness (1989) and Mikael Dovlatian’s Labyrinth (1996).

Armenia is not a sector that is booming but it is an industry with strong advocacy and support from the global sector. Modern filmmakers such as Harutyun Khachatryan (Return Of The Poet, 2005), Ruben Kochar (Metamorphoses, 2008), Vardan Hovhannisyan (A Story Of People In War And Peace, 2007), Arshakyan Yelena (An Uninterrupted Flight (2015), Sarik Andreasyan (The Earthquake, 2016), Mger Mkrtchyan (The Line, 2016), Darya Shumakova (Coming Home, 2018) and Alexey Zlobin (Lorik, 2018) are duly respected in their homeland and abroad; comedy is popular with domestic audiences, with Gor Kirakosian’s US co-production Lost and Found in Armenia (2012) and Arman Marutyan’s Super Mother films (2015, 2017) both doing big business.

Sadly, the heart of the Armenfilm production sector has been neglected. The Armenfilm Studios have fallen into disrepair, the 100 year-old facility moribund after private ownership and planned revitalisation projects have failed. A film has not been shot there in over ten years. In March 2019, ownership of the Yerevan site was transferred to a trust company called ‘Kinoket Productions’; the Minister of Economic Development and Investments, Tigran Khachatryan said that over the next 3.5 years, Kinoket will invest 2.5 million euros in the national film company.

Hopefully, a new wave in Armenian film production is not far away…

KEY EVENT:
Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival – Yerevan, Armenia; July. Presented each year under the theme, ‘Crossroads of Cultures and Civilizations.
From the website: “Years of passion and love for cinema resulted in the establishment of Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival in 2004. Before then, it was just a dream in three people’s minds - Harutyun Khachatryan, Film Director and Festival General Director; Mikayel Stamboltsyan, Film Critic and Program Director; and Susanna Harutyunyan, Film Critic and Artistic Director. The festival's name refers to the fruit native to Armenia, whose Latin name is ‘prunus аrmeniaсa,’ or ‘the Armenian plum.’ A popular symbol of the country, the warm colour of apricot is even found on the tricolored national flag.”
CONTACT: 3 Moskovyan Str., 0001, Yerevan.
Tel/Fax: 10 52 10 42 (62)
Em: info@gaiff.am ; Web: http://www.gaiff.am

INDUSTRY:
Armenian National Cinematheque
25A Tbilisyan Highway,
375052 Yerevan
Tel: +374-10-28 54 06
Em: filmadaran@yahoo.com

Armenain National Cinema Centre
38, Pushkin Str.,
Yerevan, Armenia
Tel./Fax: 10 51 82 30 (31)
E-mail: kinokentron@yahoo.com, abovyans@yahoo.com

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EUROPEAN SECTOR CONDEMNS IRAN FOR PERSECUTION OF FILMMAKER

Heads of the European film sector have spoken in unison condemning the imminent incarceration of Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof. The director of the 2020 Berlinale Golden Bear winner There is No Evil, a film that casts a critical eye on the consequences of life under authoritarian rule, has been summoned by the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Offenses Relating to Media and Culture to serve one year in prison.

This comes after the Iranian Revolutionary Court sentenced the filmmaker (pictured, above) to one year in prison, with a two-year prohibition against working as a director, for alleged propaganda against the government, in July 2019. The internationally acclaimed Rasoulof, an Un Certain Regard winner for his films Lerd (2017) and Au Revoir (2011), is also under a two-year ban on leaving the country and becoming involved in any social or political activity.

"Summoning me to serve my prison sentence only reveals a small fraction of the intolerance and anger that is characteristic of the Iranian regime’s response to criticism,” Rasoulof says. “Many cultural activists are in prison for criticizing the government." He also points out that Iranian prisons are a hotbed for the Covid-19 virus, with conditions unlikely to change under the current regime. “These conditions call for an immediate response from the international community," he says. (Pictured, right; Baran Rasoulof, daughter of the director, and Ehsan Mirhosseini in There is No Evil). 

Institutions that have declared their support for Rasoulof are The European Film Academy, The Cannes Film Festival, the Deutsche Filmakademie, the Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, the Filmfest Hamburg, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), the Netherlands Film Fund and the Accademia del cinema italiano-Premi David di Donatello. The bodies have collectively called for the charges against him to be retracted and the travel ban against him to be lifted immediately and unconditionally.

Via a press statement, President of the European Film Academy, Wim Wenders, declared, "Our colleague Mohammad Rasoulof is an artist who keeps telling us about a reality we would otherwise know little about. There is No Evil is a deeply humane portrait of people in extreme situations, situations no human should be forced to experience. We need voices like that of Mohammad Rasoulof, voices defending human rights, freedom and dignity." (Pictured, left; actress Baran Rasoulof at the Berlin Film Festival, with her father and director on the phone, following his Golden Bear win).

Ulrich Matthes, President of the Deutsche Filmakademie, adds “His deeply humane films about freedom and oppression have reached so many people worldwide. He is a representative master of Iranian cinema: a rich film culture that has provided us with some of the most compelling stories about the human condition. Mohammad Rasoulof’s films not only tell us about life in Iran but also speak to us in the universal language of cinema to promote empathy and peace."

The European voices are also demanding Rasoulof’s health and safety be ensured and that film festivals, cinema chains and all artists globally make their protestations known to Iranian officials and embassy staff in their region.