So far this year, the Fajr Film Festival which has been a mainstay of cultural and cinematic crowning glory of the Islamic regime, now, in it’s 28th year, has been a non-starter.
The Film Festival scheduled for January 25th through February 4th has had one filmmaker after another dropping out, refusing to show their films and has had one polite refusal after another by other cineastes who had been invited to participate on the jury.
The regime-run media outlet, Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported that Farhad Towhidi, the deputy director of the board of directors of the House of Cinema has also rejected the invitation to join this year’s jury. A member of the board of directors of the House of Cinema said: “Given Towhidi’s position at the House of Cinema and his directorship of the screenwriters guild and the uproar in the cineastes community (in Iran), he was unable to accept the offer to join the jury in this year’s film festival.”
In recent days, veteran Iranian actor Ezzatollah Entezami (photo above right), director and screenwriter, Asghar Farhadi (photo left) and actress Fatemeh Goodarzi (photo below right) have also turned down offers to join this year’s jury.
Last week a group of Iranian cineastes issued a statement to their international colleagues calling on them to speak out against the Islamic regime’s incursion on the Iranian protesters and to reject invitations to attend this year’s Fajr Film Festival. Th… >>>
