Iranian calls for release of film director

Associated Press

CANNES, France

Though his new film is set outside his native Iran and features a largely French and British cast, Abbas Kiarostami had the Islamic Republic on the brain Tuesday.

The celebrated director opened a news conference at the Cannes Film Festival — where his new film “Certified Copy” is in competition — with a plea for the release of detained director Jafar Panahi and a frank discussion of the difficulties of making movies in Iran.

“For a long time, the Iranian government has put a spoke in the wheel of independent filmmakers. That’s my case and the case of Jafar Panahi,” said Kiarostami, who has been making movies for about four decades. Independent directors in Iran “live under constant pressure and cannot do their jobs.” Panahi was taken into custody March 1 by Iranian security forces during a raid on his Tehran home. A state prosecutor has said Panahi’s detention is not political and that the filmmaker is suspected of committing unspecified “offenses.”

“The fact that a director is imprisoned is in and of itself intolerable,” Kiarostami said. “When one puts an artist in prison, it’s art itself that’s imprisoned, and for that reason, we must act.”