Iranian authorities have interrogated the producers of Mohammad Rasoulof's new film, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, following its selection in Competition for this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
They were interrogated and subsequently prohibited from leaving the country.
Lawyer Babak Paknia confirmed the news on X, stating that the film crew, after enduring hours of interrogation, were pressured to convince the director to withdraw the film from the Cannes line-up.
Paknia added that it was not clear if Rasoulof would be allowed to leave Iran to attend the festival.
"1/3 Some of the production agents of the movie "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" made by #محمد_رسولاف were summoned by the authorities during the last week and this week and were interrogated."
"2/3 Some of the film's actors have been banned from leaving, and according to their statements, after several hours of interrogation, they were asked to ask the director to remove the film from the Cannes Festival."
"3/3 It is unclear whether #محمد_رسولاف , who has been banned from leaving since 2017 and has a new case in the Revolutionary Court, can travel to Cannes to attend the screening of his film."
The plot of The Seed of the Sacred Fig and its cast remain under wraps, and it was not immediately clear how many people working on it were interrogated.
Rasoulof, who won the Golden Bear in Berlin in 2020 for his anti-capital punishment film There Is No Evil, was detained in July 2022 for sharing comments denouncing the government crackdown on the nationwide protests that year. He was temporarily released in 2023 due to health concerns, and was later pardoned and sentenced to one year of penal servitude, as well as a two-year ban from leaving Iran on the charge of “propaganda against the regime.”
The director was asked to join the Cannes Un Certain Regard jury last year, but could not attend due to these imposed travel restrictions.
This recent move further exemplifies censorship in the Islamic Republic, and appearances at international film festivals have been increasingly contentious for Iranian directors and actors in recent years.
Previously, Cannes has criticized the Islamic Republic’s repression of filmmakers, with the festival calling the imprisonment of Iranian director Saeed Roustaee a "serious violation of free speech” in 2023.
Roustaee was sentenced to six months in prison over his film Leila's Brothers, which screened at the 2022 edition of the festival. The film depicted economic struggles in Tehran.
The 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will open on 14 May and last until 25 May.
