Explained: Why is Iran cracking down on filmmakers as three are arrested in one week

Another internationally renowned filmmaker, Jafar Panahi, was arrested in Iran on Monday, the third Iranian director to be locked up in less than a week.

According to news agency Associated Press, Panahi, one of Iran’s best-known dissident filmmakers, had gone to the prosecutor’s office in Tehran on Monday evening to check on the cases of his two colleagues detained last week, when security forces scooped him up as well.

Why is Iran putting filmmakers behind bars?

The Iranian government has escalated a crackdown on the country’s celebrated cinema industry to curb dissent, rising anti-establishment sentiment, and near daily protests across the Islamic nation.

Following the catastrophic collapse of the Metropol Building that killed at least 41 people in May, protests erupted over allegations of government negligence and deeply rooted corruption.

Police responded with a heavy hand, clubbing protesters and firing tear gas, according to footage widely circulating online.

The increased pressure on filmmakers follows a wave of arrests in recent months as tensions escalate between Iran’s hard-line government and the West.

Security forces have arrested several foreigners as talks to revive Tehran’s nuclear accord with world powers have hit a deadlock.

Panahi’s arrest came after the arrest of two other Iranian filmmakers, Mohamad Rasoulof and Mostafa al-Ahmad.

Authorities accused Rasoulof and Al-Ahmad of undermining the nation’s security by voicing opposition on social media to the government’s violent crackdown on unrest in the country’s southwest.

Iran’s problem with its filmmakers

According to Deutsche Welle, Rasoulof and Aleahmad were among a group of at least 70 Iranian filmmakers and movie industry workers who had published an open letter and posted statements on social media calling on their country's security forces to lay down their weapons.

The filmmakers used the hashtag #put_your_gun_down with reference to the authorities' violent crackdown on protesters following the collapse of a building in the southwestern city of Abadan that killed 41 people in May — the deadliest incident of its kind in Iran for years.

The Arab Weekly reported that the crackdown on the film industry started in May when authorities raided the offices and homes of several filmmakers and other industry professionals and arrested some of them.

Rasoulof had then published a statement on his Instagram account in May condemning the actions and calling it “illegal”.

In a separate Instagram post, Rasoulof identified two of the detained filmmakers as Firouzeh Khosravani and Mina Keshavarz.

Rasoulof won the Berlin Film Festival’s top prize in 2020 for his film “There Is No Evil” that explores four stories loosely connected to the themes of the death penalty in Iran and personal freedoms under tyranny.

Shortly after receiving the award, as per The Arab Weekly report, he was sentenced to a year in prison for three films he made that authorities found to be “propaganda against the system.”

In 2011, Rasoulof’s film “Goodbye” won a prize at Cannes but he was not allowed to travel to France to accept it.

Similarly, Panahi received international acclaim despite increasing restrictions in Iran.

Since 2010, he has been banned from making films and leaving the country, but still managed to secretly direct more works, including the Golden Bear-winning "Taxi" (2015) and "3 Faces," which won Cannes' best screenplay prize in 2018.

Their arrests have prompted calls of support from the Berlinale, the European Film Academy and the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk, among other organizations.

The Cannes Film Festival sharply condemned the arrests of the three filmmakers “as well as the wave of repression obviously in progress in Iran against its artists”.

The Berlin International Film Festival said it was “dismayed and outraged” to hear of Panahi’s arrest.
“The arrest of Jafar Panahi is another violation of freedom of expression and freedom of the arts,” the festival directors said.

With inputs from agencies

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