In Solidarity with Mostafa al-Ahmad, Mohammad Rasoulof and Jafar Panahi

As Variety’s recent article notes, “In the past decades under the country’s Islamic government, many Iranian directors and actors have been arrested and accused of propaganda. Many have been jailed or prevented from leaving the country.”

The American Cinematheque stands in solidarity with recently and currently detained Iranian filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof, Mostafa Al-ahmad and Jafar Panahi. During this period of continued injustice, we are presenting a selection of films and work from the named filmmakers. These films are significant not only to these talented filmmakers’ careers, but to the history of films which dare to speak out against corrupt systems.

Throughout Mohammad Rasoulof’s career, he has been arrested several times by the Iranian government for creating “propaganda against the system”. MANUSCRIPTS DON’T BURN follows two Iranian agents going to extreme lengths to find a banned manuscript that details their government’s failed attempt to murder 21 writers. In 2020 and in defiance of Iranian government censorship, Rasoulof filmed his work THERE IS NO EVIL in secret.

A prominent figure of the Iranian new wave cinema who has also faced frequent arrests, Jafar Panahi is known for making films about Iranian social issues that critique the government and other structures. With films centered on the hardships of marginalized groups in Iran (women, children, impoverished, etc), “Panahi does not do as he is told—in fact he has made a successful career in not doing as he is told”, says an Iranian-American professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, Hamid Dabashi. TAXI and THIS IS NOT A FILM are close looks at Panahi’s life during confinement and persecution by the government.

A colleague to many famed Iranian filmmakers, Mostafa al-Ahmad, documentary filmmaker, writer and researcher was taken into custody for posting a statement on social media urging members of the Iranian security forces to lay down their weapons. The right and freedom to creativity and expression in every part of the globe is critical, and an abuse against some is an abuse against all. Please join us for these important screenings during this time.