VOA News on Iran

Film director Mohammad Rasoulof, who has secretly fled Iran for an undisclosed location in Europe, urged the world film community on Tuesday to provide "strong support" to his colleagues.

Rasoulof, who was sentenced to jail on national security charges, and whose latest movie will compete at this month's Cannes film festival, said he fears for the "safety and well-being" of fellow filmmakers still in Iran.

"The global film community must provide strong support to the makers of these films," Rasoulof said in a statement to Agence France-Presse.

Rasoulof announced on Monday he had escaped clandestinely from Iran, just days after it emerged that he had been sentenced to eight years in prison for "collusion against national security."

Rasoulof had been under pressure from Iranian authorities to withdraw his latest film, "The Seed of the Sacred Fig," from Cannes, where it will compete for the prestigious event's top prize, the Palme d'Or.

Cannes director Thierry Fremaux said the festival was working with the French Foreign Ministry in the hope of ensuring that Rasoulof, 51, can attend his premiere next week.

Rasoulof's statement said he did not yet know if he could attend the premiere.

"I arrived in Europe a few days ago after a long and complicated journey," said Rasoulof, who won the Berlin International Film Festival's Golden Bear in 2020 for "There Is No Evil."

He said his latest movie set out to portray a version of Iran "that is far from the narrative dominated by censorship in the Islamic Republic and is closer to reality."

After he and his filmmaking colleagues came under pressure from the authorities, Rasoulof learned that his "unfair" eight-year sentence would be enforced imminently, and he felt he had no choice but to flee.

"I had to choose between prison and leaving Iran," he wrote. "With a heavy heart, I chose exile."

While some colleagues involved in the film were also able to leave the country, others remain there.

"My thoughts go to every single one of them, and I fear for their safety and well-being," he said.

Iran Tuesday condemned as "interfering" a French Foreign Ministry statement accusing it of "state hostage-taking" and "blackmail" in the detention of four French nationals.

"We strongly condemn such unprofessional, interfering and inappropriate positions while resorting to false references," Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani told state news agency IRNA.

"The people mentioned in the statement of the French Foreign Ministry were arrested based on solid evidence and witnesses, and the French government is well aware of their crimes."

Teacher Cecile Kohler and her partner, Jacques Paris, were detained in Iran in May 2022. They are accused of seeking to stir up labor unrest, accusations their families vehemently deny.

"France condemns this policy of state hostage-taking and this constant blackmail by the Iranian authorities," the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement on May 7, calling for the couple's release.

Kanani called on the French "to avoid resorting to such statements and using words outside of diplomatic decency, which have negative consequences on relations between the two countries."

Kohler and Paris both made televised confessions after their arrests that France described as "forced."

Two other French citizens are held by Iran: a man identified only by his first name, Olivier, and Louis Arnaud, a banking consultant who was sentenced to five years in jail on national security charges last year.

The four are among at least a dozen European passport holders in Iranian custody, some of them dual nationals.