The Cannes film festival on May 24 will host the world premiere of Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig. Following an eight-year prison sentence, the dissident filmmaker left Iran earlier this month.
This year, the Iranian Independent Filmmakers Association (IIFA) has a display at the Market, and it is understood that about seventy independent Iranian films were submitted to Cannes.
The Woman Life Freedom Project is also making an impression at Cannes. Its billboard posters, which feature Iranian artists who have faced censorship, prohibition, or imprisonment for their artistic expression, are located besides the Majestic Hotel’s entrance.
Among the directors whose images are on display are Cannes attendees Abdolreza Kahani, Keywan Karimi, Hossein Rajabian, and Sepideh Farsi.
“Iranian filmmakers are confronted with the regime’s censorship boundaries and with financial difficulties in Iran, and when in exile, with the problems of raising funds to produce films in the Persian language outside their country,” said filmmaker Farsi, who is currently working on a documentary about the war in Gaza. However, Iranian film, whether produced in Iran or abroad, is among the most inventive globally.
The WLF Project was organised with assistance from Iranian-American lawyer Fedra Fateh, who stated that its goal was to raise awareness of the women-led fight for human and women’s rights in Iran. She also brought up the predicament of Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, who after staging demonstrations in favour of women’s rights was given a death sentence in Iran. To help spread the word about the campaign, Fateh has been meeting with festival organisers, government representatives, and executives and filmmakers while in Cannes.
