Acclaimed Iranian Filmmaker Sentenced to 8 Years in Prison and Flogging for Security Offenses

Accused of violating the Islamic Republic’s national security laws, esteemed Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof was sentenced to eight years in prison and to be punished by flogging in addition to a fine and property confiscation, the 52-year-old’s lawyer said on Wednesday.  

Rasoulof, whose newest film, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, is set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival later this week, was found guilty by an Iranian court of producing documentaries and other media that are “examples of collusion with the intention of committing a crime against the security of the country,” his attorney, Babak Paknia, announced on social media platform X.  

The Iranian government pursued legal action against Rasoulof throughout his career, and in 2022, the filmmaker was charged with “propaganda against the system” and sentenced to one year in prison, banned from making movies for two years, and had his passport confiscated.  

Paknia says that the Iranian regime has sought to prevent The Seed of the Sacred Fig from debuting at Cannes for months and alleges that other members of the production team have also faced pressure from the government to pull out of the festival. In the same vein, he also noted that some of the film’s actors have been interrogated or barred from leaving the country.  

The Seed of the Sacred Fig centers on a Revolutionary court judge in Tehran grappling with the paranoia of a missing firearm during the country’s recent “Women, Life, Freedom” protests.