Tehran denounces the film "The Nights of Mashhad" and protests to Paris

Iranian Zar Amir Ebrahimi won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for her role as a pugnacious journalist in the thriller "The Nights of Mashhad", about a serial killer of prostitutes, in Cannes, May 28, 2022. REUTERS - STEPHANE MAHE

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Iran has denounced the film "The Nights of Mashhad" claiming that it insults Iranians and their religion.

On Saturday, the Cannes Film Festival crowned its lead actress, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who lives in exile, with the Best Actress Award for her role in the thriller directed by Ali Abbasi.

She had been forced to leave Iran in the mid-2000s to take refuge in France.

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With our correspondent in Tehran

,

Siavosh Ghazi

For several days, a campaign has been launched in the conservative media and on social networks to denounce the film

The Nights of Mashhad

.

The film tells the story of a serial killer in the holy city of Mashhad who had murdered 16 prostitutes a few years ago.

He had been tried and hanged for his crimes.

For conservatives, the film shows a " 

biased and political 

" image of religion, clerics and Iranians.

On Wednesday, June 1, Iranian Culture Minister Mohammad Mehdi Esmaili condemned the film and the prize that was awarded to its actress Zar Ami Ebrahimi: 

 It's a bad choice, totally political, which aims to show a black image of Iranian society.

We totally condemn it.

We protested to the French government.

They have no right to insult a people and its sacred values 

”.

Some have even gone further, claiming that this film follows the same path as The Satanic Verses, which writer

Salman Rushdie had been accused of blasphemy

.

The founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa in 1989 calling for the murder of Salman Rushdie. 

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