In 2020 he won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale for his film “There is no evil”. Director Mohammed Rassulof has now been arrested in Iran. That’s what the organizers of the film festival say about it.
The Berlinale organizers have protested against the arrest of Iranian filmmaker and Berlinale winner Mohammed Rassulof and one of his colleagues in Iran.
“It is shocking that artists are being imprisoned for their peaceful efforts against violence,” the Berlinale management duo, Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian, told the German Press Agency on Saturday. They called on the Iranian authorities to release the two directors immediately.
allegations of sedition
Mohammed Rassulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad have been arrested on charges of incitement to hatred. They are said to have endangered public order with a call against violence and also worked with opponents of the regime, according to the judicial authority, according to the state news agency IRNA.
The background to the appeal against violence is the collapse of a shopping arcade in the southwestern Iranian city of Abadab in May this year, which killed more than 40 people. As a result, there were protests critical of the regime in Abadan, which were violently suppressed by the police and security forces. With the appeal allegedly initiated by Rassulof and Al-Ahmad and the hashtag “Put your gun down” (put down your gun), more than 70 people from the Iranian film industry demanded an end to police violence.
The 49-year-old Rassulof, who received the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in 2020 for his film “There is no evil”, is considered a filmmaker critical of the regime in the country. Despite being banned from working for many years, he always managed to make films. He lives alternately in Tehran and Hamburg.
