Iran Releases Award-Winning Filmmaker After 6 Months Of Detention

(CTN NEWS) – DUBAI – According to a pro-reform newspaper, ran freed a filmmaker was detained almost six months ago for criticizing Iran’s government.

One of several well-known artists, athletes, and other personalities recently jailed for criticizing the government is Mohammad Rasoulof, whose 2020 film “There is No Evil” won the top prize at the Berlin International Film Festival.

He was detained in July for denouncing the government’s suppression of demonstrations in the southwest city of Abadan in response to a fatal building collapse after a 22-year-old woman died while in the care of the nation’s morality police.

There were widespread demonstrations two months later.

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Rasoulof was recently granted a furlough from prison and was legally released, according to the Shargh daily, a nation’s reform movement member, without giving any dates or other details. Nothing official was said.

Famous filmmaker Jafar Panahi, detained in July after inquiring about the custody of Rasoulof and another collaborator, was freed by Iran earlier this month.

Taraneh Alidoosti, an Iranian actress, was also released by the authorities after being jailed for criticizing the suppression of the most recent rallies.

Iranians protested in the streets following the murder in September of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman who the morality police had arrested for allegedly disobeying the nation’s strict Islamic dress code.

The protests presented one of the greatest threats to the country’s ruling clerics since they came to power in the 1979 revolution, which turned into calls for their ouster.

According to Human Rights Activists in Iran, an organization that has closely followed the turmoil, at least 529 protesters have died and close to 20,000 have been detained since those demonstrations started.

Iranian officials have not officially disclosed the number of those murdered or detained.

The 2020 Golden Bear winner in Berlin was “There Is No Evil,” which explores four stories about the use of the death penalty in Iran.

Due to an Iranian government travel prohibition, Rasoulof could not accept the award.

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