A court in Iran has sentenced prominent film director Saeed Roustayi to six months’ prison for the screening of his film Leila’s Brothers at the Cannes film festival in 2022, local media reported.
Leila’s Brothers, a rich and complex tale of a family struggling with economic hardship in Tehran, has been banned in Iran since its release last year. The film was in competition for the Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes festival, winning the International Federation of Film Critics award.
The reformist daily Etemad said on Tuesday that Roustayi, along with the film’s producer Javad Noruzbegi, “were sentenced to six months in prison for screening the movie at Cannes”. Roustayi and Noruzbegi were found guilty of “contributing to propaganda of the opposition against the Islamic system”. Leila’s Brothers was banned after it “broke the rules by being entered at international film festivals without authorisation,” and the director refused to “correct” it as requested by the culture ministry, official media said at the time.
The film-makers will serve about nine days, while the remainder “will be suspended over five years”, according to Etemad, which added that the verdict can be appealed.
During the suspension period, the defendants will be required to take a film-making course while “preserving national and ethical interests” and refrain from associating with other cinema professionals, the newspaper said.
Roustayi, 34, has gained international renown since his 2019 film Law of Tehran (AKA Just 6.5), an uncompromising look at Iran’s drug problem and the brutal, and fruitless, police response.
In 2022, award-winning film-maker Jafar Panahi was sentenced to six years in jail after inquiring about the detention of fellow directors Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Aleahmad, and was released on bail in February after going on hunger strike.
