Dardennes, Alice Diop, Cristian Mungiu, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah call on Iran’s Fajr Film Fest to remove titles from its schedule

Belgian directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, French filmmaker Alice Diop and Romanian director Cristian Mungiu have demanded that Iran’s Fajr International Film Festival remove their films from the current edition, which runs from May 20 to February 1 open. run. until 11

The filmmakers said in separate statements that they accidentally discovered that their respective films Tori and Lokita, Holy Omer, rebel And RMN were included in Fajr’s list without their personal consent.

“We just learned our film Tori and Lokita is in the selection of the Fajr festival in Tehran,” the Dardens said in a statement on Thursday.

“We demand the immediate removal of the film from the program of this festival, which is a showcase for a dictatorial and murderous religious regime that we condemn.”

Holy Omer Director Alice Diop said she was made aware of the shooting of her film by exiled Iranian filmmaker Mehran Tamadon my worst enemy will premiere at the Berlinale later this month.

“It is absolutely inconceivable that my film could be screened in the heart of an event organized by a regime that has waged a campaign of violence and repression against its people for years and imprisoned directors for expressing their violates the right to freedom of expression. dared to practice. ” she said.

rebel And bad boy for life Filmmakers Arbi and Fallah and their producers at Caviar in Brussels said showing their film at the festival would be like “ignoring the struggle of the oppressed in Iran for their rights”.

“We support the Iranian director Jafar Panahi, who was arrested in Tehran on July 20 and remains in prison to this day,” they said, referring to the dissident filmmaker, who announced this week that he would go on a hunger strike to protest to engage in illegal protest. detention.

Paris-based retailer Wild Bunch International, which manages the titles, said being included in the Fajr line-up also came as a surprise to them.

Two other WBI titles also made their way onto the list, including Rachid Bouchareb’s Our brothers and that of Kamila Andini Past, Now & Then. Both filmmakers asked for the titles to be withdrawn.

WBI said the films were made available to Fajr without her permission or knowledge by a local agent working with longtime MENA distribution partner Front Row Filmed Entertainment.

They asked Front Row to force the removal of the films from selection. Front Row has now made several requests to stop the films and is awaiting a response.

Titles from other international filmmakers would also be in the running.

Founded in 1982, the state-sponsored Fajr International Film Festival is Iran’s premier international film festival and is held in Tehran. Although overseen by Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, it has traditionally not been subject to the country’s broader strict censorship laws.

For years, the festival has been a window on the world for local audiences. It was also the occasion where Iranians could see films from local directors such as Panahi, Mohammad Rasoulof and Asghar Farhadi, as well as regional and international art house titles before they were censored or even banned.

The local film community has always had a complex relationship with this event.

Many film professionals came to keep the independent film culture alive, even though they had conflicted feelings about their ties to the state and some of the government-supported productions they also hosted.

International sales agents and regional distributors also made their films available to the festival, which had previously been screened in major markets such as Cannes and the European Film Market and were not considered a pariah event to the outside world.

The situation changed after last summer’s crackdown on freedom of expression and the arrests of creative people such as directors Panahi, Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad, followed by the Woman, Life, Freedom protests after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody.

Local film producers, some of whom had already distanced themselves from the festival before these events, are now calling for an outright boycott.

They say its continuation is an attempt by the authorities to pretend that things are normal at a time when more than 500 protesters have been killed by security forces, another 20,000 people have been arrested, four protesters have been executed and at least another 100 were taken. prisoner. must be on the death toll.

A number of film professionals still based in Iran and screening films at the festival are also openly boycotting the event, saying the titles were included against their will.

The London-based Persian news channel Iran International reported that Fajr had kept the program for this year’s edition secret until the last minute so that filmmakers and producers would not demand that their films be removed.

The broadcaster said tickets for screenings are being sold without information about which film will be shown.

It added that the opening night on February 1, the same day Panahi declared his hunger strike, was a flop as the theater where the event took place was virtually empty except for government ministers and media associated with the Revolutionary Whisk.

Front Row has been open about working with the festival in the past, but said it was clear the situation had changed.

“We have always used the film festival to give a voice to both local and international talent in a country that craves international films but is often limited to mainly local films,” the company said. “It was always about contributing to the film company, hoping that one day things would open up in every way. It has always been a way to bridge cultures… and we always have.

“Of course the situation escalated. Our official position is very clear: we support the local and international film community and are outspoken in support of freedom of expression and human rights in all its shapes and forms and for this we have officially demanded that all films in which we represent the MENA region be screened by the Fajr Film Festival.”