Dissident Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof has confirmed that he was unable to accept an invitation from the Cannes Film Festival to participate in its Un Certain Regard jury after being barred from leaving Iran.
News of the incident first broke via the Farsi-language news service of Radio France Internationale (RFI).
The report said the festival had hoped to secure Rasoulof’s attendance following his temporary release from Tehran’s Evin jail in February due to ill health, following a seven-month stint at the notoriously tough facility.
Rasoulof confirmed to Deadline that the report was true and said no explanation was given for rejecting the travel request.
The continued travel restrictions for Rasoulof follow news last week that friend and fellow dissident director Jafar Panahi had left Iran for the first time in 14 years following the lifting of his travel ban. His lawyer denied rumors that he had left for good.
Rasoulof has been in the crosshairs of Iran’s hardline Islamic Republic government throughout his career for challenging its draconian rule with his work.
His latest arrest was last July, prior to the ongoing Woman Life Freedom protests, and was related to his signing a petition titled “Lay Down Your Arms” calling on security forces to exercise restraint in relation to popular protests.
The director has a long relationship with the Cannes Film Festival.
His films Manuscripts Don’t Burn (2013) and A Man Of Integrity (2017) world premiered in Un Certain Regard in 2013 and 2017, winning the Fipresci prize and best film prize respectively.
A Man Of Integrity was the last film with which Rasoulof travelled the festival circuit. After its premiere in Cannes, he presented it at Telluride in September 2017 and then had his passport confiscated on his return.
He defied a filmmaking ban and went on to make his searing drama There Is No Evil, capturing Iranian society under the Islamic Republic regime, which won the Berlinale Golden Bear in 2020.
Deadline has contacted the Cannes Film Festival for comment.
