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As a sign of mourning, in tribute to the victims of the Ukraine Airlines plane crash and especially to denounce the authorities' lie, many artists, actors, photographers and graphic designers have announced their withdrawal from the Fajr festival, celebrated each year in Tehran in on the anniversary of the Iranian revolution. A symbolic boycott to express their anger.
Since the Iranian regime finally admitted, on Saturday, January 11, to be responsible for the plane crash of the company Ukraine Airlines, which made 176 victims, many artists have joined the Iranians in anger to denounce the lies of the State.
On Monday January 13, the famous Iranian director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad was arrested for a few hours for calling on the population to come together in memory of the victims of the plane crash. Following this call, Mohammad Sadegh Koushki, a professor at the University of Tehran, implicitly treated the prostitute director during a program broadcast on the public channel Ofogh. The Maison du cinema, a trade union organization for Iranian cinema, immediately published a statement calling for a boycott of state television: " TV gives false information, the gap between TV and people is growing . They threatened and insulted the most important female director in the country. It is unforgivable. The Maison du Cinéma therefore decided to ask all its members to stop all collaboration with State TV to denounce this affront. How long do they want to continue in this lie? Asks the director Mojtaba Mirtahmasb.
" We are prisoners, thousands of prisoners "
Indignant at the hypocrisy of their leaders, many artists also withdraw their participation in the Iranian festival of Fajr, showcase of the arts of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Among the celebrities who decided to boycott the festival, actresses Pegah Ahangarani and Sara Bahrami: " As a sign of empathy with the bereaved people of Iran, this year I will not be present at any Fajr festival and will neither participate as an artist, neither as a member of the jury or expert, nor even as a spectator of any work ”, wrote Sara Bahrami on her Instagram account .
Taraneh Alidoosti, lead actress in Asghar Farhadi's film The Client (2016), also affirmed her support for the boycott movement: “ I haven't been going to Fajr festival for six years, not even as a guest. This year will be the seventh year. I am happy to see that today, a significant number of my colleagues see the propagandistic, non-cinematographic and governmental character [of this festival, note], " she said .
Earlier, still on Instagram, the actress was referring to the latest tragic events that affected Iran - the crash and its 176 victims but also the suppressed protests in November: “ We are not citizens, we do not 've never been. We are prisoners, thousands of prisoners, ” she wrote .
The Iranians applaud this initiative. Many of them congratulate the actor and director Mehdi Koushki, who announced on Instagram his decision to give up the performance of his play scheduled for the festival: " Bravo ", " thank you ", comment on many Iranians. " This is a huge moral damage for the regime which has used artists for years for its propaganda, " said Hamid Ashraf on Twitter .
A gap between the authorities and the population
For Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, this movement is a way for artists to denounce the distance between the population and the politicians: “ The political leaders want to pretend that nothing has happened. We show that we don't agree, ”he explains. For him, the authorities' lie for three days, " without any excuse or affection ", led to " national distress ". " The most important thing for me is that our officials understand that the Iranians are neither spies nor foreigners. It is a population that does not want lies, just peace. "
In addition to actors and comedians, photographers and graphic designers also take part in the boycott. Thus photographer Kiarang Alaei announces the withdrawal of the photo jury from the 12th edition of the Fajr visual arts festival. Same approach on the side of graphic designers: " In the current situation, we have neither the strength to continue, nor the intention to be silent, " writes graphic designer Mehdi Fatehi .
The Iranian press agency Isna already announced, Wednesday , January 15, that the inauguration ceremony of the festival was canceled out of respect and in memory of the victims of recent events. Instead, the artists will be able to participate in a solidarity mission with the victims of the floods that hit the province of Sistan-Baluchistan. According to Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, the Fajr festival will nevertheless take place: “ I believe that they will still organize it, if only to show a good image, even if they will have to make arrangements for it. "
Opposition of certain artists
Some artists nevertheless opposed any boycott, like Shahab Hosseini, winner of the prize for male interpretation at the Cannes Film Festival for his role in Le Client (2016), alongside Taraneh Alidoosti. Popular among the Iranian population, he affirmed that this initiative risks " creating an irreversible gap between the actors on the one hand and vis-à-vis their audience on the other ". For Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, this will on the contrary " allow us to show which artists are on the side of the population, those who are with the system and those who do not decide ".
On Saturday January 18, Massoud Hokmabadi was arrested in Mashhad . The theater producer from the holy Shiite city had encouraged the boycott of the festival. Conservative MP Nasrollah Pejmanfar said on Thursday (January 16th) that parliament already plans to ban all artistic activity within the Islamic Republic from artists who have supported the movement: " If they are not expected to do not participate, it is better that they never participate ”, he concluded.