The celebrated Iranian movie director Mohammad Rasoulof stated he had fled the nation, after a court docket sentenced him to eight years in jail for his films.
Mr. Rasoulof — identified for his award-winning movie “There Is No Evil” — had been barred from leaving Iran after his work criticized life beneath authoritarian rule within the nation. His lawyer, Babak Paknia, wrote final week on social media {that a} court docket had sentenced Mr. Rasoulof to imprisonment, whipping and a advantageous for films that it called “examples of collusion with the intention of committing against the law in opposition to the nation’s safety.”
On Monday, Mr. Rasoulof introduced his escape from Iran in an Instagram publish that featured a video of snow-capped mountains and stated he had reached a “secure place” after a “tough and lengthy journey.”
Addressing Iran’s clerical rulers, Mr. Rasoulof stated he had been compelled to depart “due to your oppression and barbarity,” and that he had now joined Iranians in exile who have been “impatiently ready to bury you and your machine of oppression within the depths of historical past.”
He didn’t present particulars on his location or reply to a message from The New York Occasions.
“There Is No Evil” — which centered on executioners in Iran — gained the highest prize within the Berlin Worldwide Movie Pageant in 2020. Mr. Rasoulof, who had directed the movie in secret, was not allowed to depart the nation to attend that award ceremony.
Iran’s movie trade is acclaimed internationally and closely policed at residence, the place the authorities can ban screening and filming.
Mr. Rasoulof’s new film, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” is about to premiere on the Cannes Movie Pageant in France this month.
A number of the movie’s producers have been interrogated by the authorities and a few of its actors have been barred from leaving the nation, Mr. Paknia said in social media posts final month.
Mr. Rasoulof informed The New York Occasions in 2020 that early on in his profession he had used allegorical tales to keep away from confronting energy immediately, however ultimately felt that was “a type of accepting the tyrannical regime.”
He went on to supply sharp critiques of Iran’s clerical rulers together with his movies, together with “Manuscripts Don’t Burn” and “A Man of Integrity” — which gained an award at Cannes in 2017.
Over time, the Iranian authorities had charged him with propaganda in opposition to the state, confiscated his passport, arrested and prosecuted him.
In an announcement launched on Monday, Mr. Rasoulof stated “the scope and depth of repression has reached some extent of brutality the place individuals count on information of one other heinous authorities crime every single day.”
Leily Nikounazar contributed reporting from Brussels.
