Award-winning filmmakers demand removal of their films from Iranian festival
The brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (our illustration photo) obtained for “Tori and Lokita” a special prize at the 75th Cannes Film Festival in May 2022. They are asking for their film to be withdrawn from the Farj International Festival.
AFP
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2 mins
The brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne as well as Alice Diop each demanded the withdrawal of their latest films from the programming of an Iranian festival, where they would have been registered without their agreement.
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Tori and Lokita
, a Dardenne film which won a special prize at the 75th Cannes Film Festival last May, and
Saint Omer
by French director Alice Diop, Grand Jury Prize in Venice, are registered in the festival's "festivals of festivals" section
. Farj International Film Festival
, according to the event's Farsi-language website.
"
It is obviously impossible to conceive that my film could be screened within a film festival organized by a regime which for years has pursued a policy of violence and repression against its people and where directors are locked up for having had the courage to exercise their legitimate right to freedom
," said Alice Diop.
"
Support
"
"
I demand
, according to his declarations transmitted to AFP on Friday February 3,
that my film be immediately withdrawn from this programming and lend my support to the courageous movement of protest and revolt in Iran which, we all hope, will be able to vacillate this dictatorship
".
For their part, the Belgians Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, in a press release from their company Les Films du Fleuve, demanded that their film
Tori and Lokita
"
be withdrawn from the program of this festival which is the showcase of a dictatorial religious regime and murderer whom we condemn.
We stand in solidarity with those who fight against this regime and salute their courage
,” they say.
Mobilization
Many film professionals and artists have denounced the repression in Iran in recent months and mobilized again on Thursday in favor of their fellow Iranian director Jafar Panahi, finally released on bail on Friday afternoon February 3 after seven months of prison.
►
To read also:
Iran: filmmaker Jafar Panahi released on bail after seven months in prison
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