Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof’s intervention comes amid outpouring of solidarity from cultural figures in Iranian diaspora
The Iranian film-makers Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof have slammed the internet blackout in their country as a “blatant tool of repression” aimed at concealing violence against protesters, amid an outpouring of artist tributes from the Iranian diaspora.
Panahi, a Palme d’Or-winning film-maker who the Iranian regime sentenced last month in absentia to a year in prison for “propaganda activities”, and Rasoulof, a prominent film-maker who fled Iran in 2024 while appealing a prison sentence and now lives in exile in Europe, posted a joint statement on social media on Saturday.
“In recent days, following the presence of millions of Iranians in the streets protesting against the Islamic Republic, the government has once again resorted to its most blatant tools of repression,” they wrote.
“On the one hand, the Iranian regime has cut off communication routes inside the country – the internet, mobile phones, and landlines – severing people’s ability to communicate with one another; and on the other hand, it has completely blocked all means of contact with the outside world.
