In what seems like an annual ritual, dissident Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof has been banned by Teheran from attending the Cannes Film Festival, where his latest work, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, is vying for the top Palme d'Or. The Festival begins on May 14. 

Mohammed prohibited from attending Cannes 2024

Iran's decision came on Thursday, and it has been regularly imposing such harsh and punitive punishment on directors and actors, who have been critical of its administration. Last year, Rasoulof who was to have served on the Cannes Un Certain Regard jury could not because of travel restrictions imposed on him.

These curbs followed his Golden Bear win at 2020 Berlin, where he showed his work, There Is No Evil, a scathing criticism of capital punishment. But it was his subsequent denouncement of the government crackdown on nationwide protestors that saw him jailed. He was temporarily freed in 2023 because of ill health. He was later pardoned, but a travel ban was slapped on him.

Jafar Panahi was also barred from leaving Iran

There have been other Iranian directors who have faced the wrath of Tehran. Jafar Panahi is the most renowned helmer to have faced such punishment. A prize winner at Cannes for his 1995 debut The White Balloon, he has been barred from leaving Iran since 2010 after being found guilty of “colluding with the intention to commit crimes against the country’s national security and propaganda against the Islamic Republic”.

Although he was initially placed under house arrest, the rules of his sentence were subsequently relaxed. He can now move freely within Iran. But a 20-year ban on travelling abroad remains. Also, he cannot speak to the media or make movies.

But can anyone stop Panahi, a man who breathes cinema. He has made at least three films surreptitiously since the ban was imposed. In 2018, his Three Faces competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes. He shot two more movies secretly: This is Not a Film, a 2011 documentary detailing his house arrest, and the 2013 Closed Curtain.

The documentary was smuggled into the Cannes Film Festival in a USB flash drive, which was hidden inside a cake! What seemed equally cheeky was the way he shot Taxi in 2015, and got the docu-fiction to play at Berlin, where it won the top Golden Bear. Dressed as a cabbie, he placed a small camera on the dashboard of his taxi and took in passengers in Tehran – right under the nose of the ruling clergy. He recorded their variedly interesting conversations and made a movie out of them. And gave it an equally cheeky title, This is Not a Film.

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