The Iranian director Jafar Panahi has been arrested this Monday in front of the prosecutor’s office in Tehran, where he had gone to follow up on the arrest last Friday of two other filmmakers Mohamad Rasoulof and Mostafa Ale Ahmad. At the moment, “there is no information on the reason for Panahi’s arrest”, according to the local news agency Mehr.
The 2015 Golden Bear Taxi winner posted on his Instagram account a statement signed by 334 Iranian filmmakers, condemning “the constant repression” of independent artists and filmmakers and demanding “the immediate and unconditional release” of his two companions, that they have been “transferred to an anonymous place”.
Rasoulof, winner of the Golden Bear with There is no Evil in 2020 and Ale Ahmad, along with a group of actors, including Panahi, signed a statement on May 29 entitled “Lay down your weapon”, in which they asked the forces lay down their weapons and return to the arm of the nation.
The aforementioned statement was published during the street protests that were organized against corruption after the deadly collapse of a building called Metropol in the southern city of Abadan.
