Iran has released an award-winning filmmaker more than six months after arresting him for criticizing the government, a pro-reform newspaper reported on Monday.
Mohammad Rasoulof, whose 2020 film, ‘There is No Evil,’ won the top prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, is one of several prominent artists, athletes and other celebrities detained in recent months for criticizing the authorities .
He was arrested in July for criticizing a government crackdown on protests in the southwestern city of Abadan over a fatal building collapse. Two months later, nationwide protests erupted after the death of a 22-year-old woman in the custody of the country’s morality police.
The Shargh newspaper, associated with the country’s reform movement, said Rasoulof was recently released from prison and was formally released, without specifying dates or providing any further information. No official comment.
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Iranian producer Farzad Pak holds up a phone showing Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof who was awarded the Golden Bear for Best Film for his film There is No Evil. (Photo by John Macdougall/AFP via Getty Images)
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Earlier this month, Iran released famed filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who was arrested in July after investigating the detention of Rasoulof and another colleague. Authorities also released Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti on bail after she was arrested for criticizing the crackdown on the latest protests.
Iranians took to the streets over the September death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurdish woman who was arrested by the morality police for allegedly violating the country’s strict Islamic dress code. The protests have turned into calls for the overthrow of the country’s ruling clerics, marking one of the biggest challenges they have faced since they came to power during the 1979 revolution.
At least 529 protesters have been killed and nearly 20,000 arrested since the protests began, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that has been monitoring the unrest closely. Iranian authorities have not released official figures for those killed or arrested.
“There Is No Evil”, which tells four stories loosely connected to the use of the death penalty in Iran, won the Golden Bear in Berlin 2020. Rasoulof was not present to accept the award due to a ban on trip imposed on him by the Iranian authorities.
