Iran bans director Mani Haghighi from attending London film festival
Iranian film-maker Mani Haghighi has been banned from leaving the country and had his passport confiscated after attempting to travel to London, where his latest film Subtraction is screening at the London film festival.
In a video statement, Haghighi said: “I was prevented by the Iranian authorities from boarding my flight to London on Friday. They gave me no reasonable explanation for this utterly rude behaviour.”
A spokesperson for the film festival added: “Mani Haghighi … was turned away by authorities in Iran and has his passport confiscated. He has returned to his home in Tehran.”
In his statement, Haghighi connected the authorities’ actions with his statement in support of the widespread protests across the country. “A couple of weeks ago I recorded an Instagram video in which I criticised Iran’s mandatory hijab laws, and the crackdown on the youth that are protesting it and so many other instances of injustice in their lives. Perhaps the authorities thought that by keeping me here they could keep a closer eye on me, threaten me and shut me up? Well the very fact that I am talking to you in this video right now undermines that plan.”
He added: “Let me tell you that being here in Tehran right now is one of the greatest joys of my life. I cannot put into words the joy and the honour of being able to witness at first hand this great moment in history, and I would rather be here than anywhere else in the world right now. So if this is a punishment for what I’ve done then by all means bring it on. Let me end this with the three words that have given Iranians so much joy and courage in the last few weeks: women, life, freedom.”
Subtraction is due to screen in London on Saturday and is described by Variety as a thriller “set in downtown Tehran”, about a driving instructor who sees her husband going into a woman’s flat at a time when he says he was out of town.
The action against Haghighi is the latest in Iran’s harassment of its country’s film-makers. In July, award-winning director Jafar Panahi received a six year jail sentence following his attempt to find information about fellow filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Aleahmad, who had been detained earlier.
On Monday the London film festival staged a protest in support of the jailed Iranian directors, as well as filmmakers imprisoned in other parts of the world, attended by Citizenfour director Laura Poitras, and festival director Tricia Tuttle among others.