San Sebastian Festival joins protest against arrest of filmmakers

Donostia-San Sebastian Film Festival joined on Tuesday a protest against the arrest of filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof, both of whom have been sentenced to six years in prison and twenty years of disqualification by the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

On a press statement published on its website, the Film Festival states its support of the filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof. "As a platform for the screening of films made the world over, San Sebastian Festival considers this deplorable occurrence to be an extremely serious assault on freedom of expression and on the individual rights of both filmmakers", the statement goes on to say.

The director Jafar Panahi visited San Sebastian Festival in 2001, receiving the Fipresci (International Federation of Film Critics) Grand Prix for Best Film of the Year for Dayereh / The Circle.

For his part, Mohammad Rasoulof competed in the Official Selection of the Festival in 2009 with his film Keshtzar haye sepid /The White Meadows, in which Panahi also participated as the editor. At the last edition of the Festival another film produced by Rasoulof, Gesher, was selected for the Zabaltegi-New Directors section.