Tehran turns to cinema to stoke hatred of the US
Propaganda films andd bans on reporters planned d as directors and actors defy regime to join in proteststests
IRAN’S parliament could today ay vote to compel the ministry of culture re to support the production of anti-US S films as Tehran faces growing dissent ent from prominent figures in the industry. stry.
The motion is one of several al before the parliament. Another calls ls for a ban on foreign journalists working with media outlets “supportive rtive of Washington’s cruel sanctions” ” on Iran.
Relations between Iran and the theWest West have been strained since Donald Trump pulled America out t of the nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed imposed sanctions, but have worsened ed since the US killing of General Qassem Soleimani, leader of the Quds Force.
The regime provoked an internal backlash when missiles fired red in response to the killing accidentally entally downed a Ukrainian Airlines plane, killing all 176 mainly Iranian an and dual-national passengers on board. oard.
Film directors and actors s were prominent among the protesters sters as thousands took to the streets after the authorities finally admitted firing ring the rockets that brought down the e jet.
The parliamentary motion, , which is expected to pass, is seen n as an attempt to use the soft power wer of cinema to stoke anti-US sentiment. ment.
“It’s hard to believe,” said Ali li Vaez, director of the Iran Project at t Crisis Group, “that as Iran’s government nment reels from its shocking handling dling of the Ukrainian jet tragedy, gedy, economic stagflation and political tical stagnation, the parliament is making time to discuss anti-US films and banning foreign journalists.” At least three filmmakers were arrested over the weekend after taking part in one of the vigils for the dead in the Tehran’s Azadi Square.
Days later, more than 30 artists, filmmakers and actors pulled movies from the government-sponsored Fajr film festival in solidarity with the jet tragedy victims’ families.
Those withdrawing included prominent singer Alireza Assar, director Masoud Kimiai and actresses Fatemeh Motamed Arya and Mahtab Keramati. Mr Kimiai, who pulled his film There Was Blood, told the Sunday Telegraph: “It’s a hard time for my people and they hear bad news every day. Under these circumstances, I don’t want my film to be shown. It would not be right.” Another signatory, Rakhshan Bani Etemad, a well-known filmmaker, was detained for several hours. Her family says she was warned by authorities to no longer work in the film industry and not to speak in public about
‘We are not citizens. We never have been. We are hostages. Millions of hostages’
her treatment. A government official has reportedly threatened a lifelong ban from the industry for all those participating in the boycott.
Taraneh Alidoosti, one of the most famous actresses in Iran, wrote to her six million fans on Instagram: “Been fighting with myself for a long time and didn’t want to admit. We are not citizens. We have never been. We’re hostages. Millions of hostages.”
President Hassan Rouhani was re-elected in 2017 on the promise of economic prosperity and greater social freedoms. But artists, academics and those who speak out continue to be detained and threatened.
“This pressure cooker finally exploded,” said one theatre director. “The plane crash, caused by a missile, and the subsequent silence of the authorities, has hurt people so much that this mass resignation is a natural reaction.
“This was all the artists could do,” he said. “The The wave was so big that, for instance, it included the resig resignation of every single judge and pa participant from one of the festivals.”
The rift over how the cr crash was handled also spread to the new news media, with a number of popu popular TV presenters resigning.
Gelare Jabbari, a host on s state TV’s Channel Two, posted a public apology on her Instagram page.
“It was very hard for me to believe the murdering of my coun countrymen. Forgive me for believing it t too late,” she wrote to followers. “I apol apologise for lying to you on TV for 13 year years.” Last week, top chess referee Shohreh Bayat, 32, said she was afraid to return hom home from the Women’s World Championships in Shanghai after a state media published pictures pic of her not wearing a hijab – mandatory in Irani Iranian law.
Meanwhile, Ira Iran’s only female Olympic m medallist has defected to Europe. Kimia Alizad Alizadeh, 21, who to took taekwondo bronze in 20 2016, said the regime oppre oppressed wome women.
“They took me wherever they wanted,” she said. “Whatever they said, I wore. Every sentence they ordered, I repeated.”