Jailed Iran filmmaker Panahi on hunger strike

The 62-year-old made the award-winning films The Circle, Taxi Tehran, and and Three Faces.

Jafar Panahi in Taxi Tehran which won a Golden Bear prize at the Berlin film festival.

Acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who has been jailed for the past six months, said he has begun a hunger strike to protest his detention, according to a statement published by his wife.

Panahi, whose films have won prizes at all of Europe’s main film festivals, was arrested in July before the current wave of protests that have shaken the ­regime started in September.

There were expectations last month that the judiciary could order his release, but he remains behind bars in Tehran’s Evin prison. He started his dry hunger strike, refusing food and water, from Wednesday, he said in the statement.

“Today, like many people trapped in Iran, I have no choice but to protest against this inhumane behaviour with my dearest possession – my life,” ­Panahi said.

Panahi, 62, was arrested on July 11 and had been due to serve a six-year sentence handed down in 2010 after his conviction for “propaganda against the system”. But on October 15, the ­Supreme Court quashed the conviction and ordered a retrial, raising hopes among his legal team he could be released.

He won a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2000 for his film The Circle. In 2015, he won the Golden Bear at Berlin for Taxi Tehran, and in 2018, he won the best screenplay prize at Cannes for Three Faces.

“We stand in solidarity with Iranians fighting for their rights, condemn his arrest and call for his release,” the Berlin Film Festival tweeted.

AFP