Iranian of the Day

New York Times News Blog, By ROBERT MACKEY: Abbas Kiarostami, a celebrated Iranian filmmaker who has won numerous international awards for films like “Close-Up” and “ Through The Olive Trees,” published an open letter in a Tehran newspaper on Tuesday calling for the release of Jafar Panahi and Mahmoud Rasoulof, two directors recently detained by the authorities.

Mr. Kiarostami sent the original, Persian-language text of his letter and an English translation to The Lede from Iran through a mutual friend, Hooman Majd, the author of “The Ayatollah Begs to Differ.” The complete text of the translation is below. The original text is available for download.

Mr. Panahi, who has directed two films scripted by Mr. Kiarostami, “The White Balloon,” and “ Crimson Gold,” was arrested last week, as my colleague Nazila Fathi reported.

In an interview uploaded to YouTube, he discussed the event that inspired his 2006 film “ Offside,” which is about a group of Iranian women who want to be allowed to watch a soccer match.

According to The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, a source close to him said: “Over the past years, Ministry of Intelligence authorities have summoned Jafar Panahi to different investigation offices of the Ministry in different locations and have questioned him. In one of these meetings he was told, ‘Just because you are a famous filmmaker, you mustn’t think that we are unable to arrest you. We can arrest you whenever we decide.’”

Here is the complete text of Mr. Kiarostami’s open letter, written in response to that arrest:

I don’t quite know to whom I am addressing this letter, but I do know why I’m writing it and I believe that under the circumstances it is both critical and inevitable because two Iranian filmmakers, both of whom are vital to the Iranian wave of independent cinema, have been incarcerated.

As a filmmaker of the same independent cinema, it has been years since I lost hope of ever screening my films in my country. By making my own low-budget and personal films, it has also been years since I lost all hope of receiving any kind of aid or assistance from the Ministry of Guidance and Islamic culture, the custodian of Iranian cinema.

In order to make a living, I have turned to photography and use that income to make short and low-budget films. I don’t even object to their illegal reproduction and distribution because that is my only means of communicating with my own people. For years now I have not even objected to this lack of attention from the ministry and cinema‫tic authorities‬ >>>