The director of 'There Is No Evil', which won the prestigious award at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival, was arrested back in 2010 for 'propaganda against the regime.'
- Mar 5, 2020
AceShowbiz - Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof has been summoned to serve a prison sentence in Iran.
Rasoulof has faced issues with government censorship in the past, and was previously arrested in 2010 for "propaganda against the regime", a charge which landed him a six-year prison sentence. The punishment was subsequently reduced to just a year.
However, the Iranian government had not imposed the sentence, and left Rasoulof to continue making movies such as "There Is No Evil", which won the prestigious Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival on Monday, March 02. Despite his victory at the festival, Rasoulof was unable to attend due to a ban preventing him from travelling abroad - he had his passport confiscated in 2017 after returning to his home country following the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, where he screened his movie, "A Man of Integrity".
And now, his lawyer confirmed to the Associated Press, the Iranian government has summoned Rasoulof to serve his year-long prison sentence.
He added that they are planning to appeal the decision, particularly in light of the strain on the Iranian prison system caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Authorities have sent around 54,000 prisoners home temporarily in a bid to stop the virus from further spreading.
