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Dear all,
On June 7th, Iranian filmmaker Mahnaz Mohammadi was summoned by Sentence Enforcement Court of Evin Prison, in the North of Tehran, to be jailed, and the world took a little notice.
This imprisonment is the last of a long line of troubles, wich begins with her arrest on June 27th 2011. At that time, The Film Disrectors’Guild has strongly denounced this arrest. Mahnaz Mohammadi was jailed for 1 month and she was released on bail, on July 27th 2011, waiting for the court verdict, wich has been given on October 23th 2013 : five years in prison.
For several years, Mahnaz Mohammadi has been the subject of daily harassment and she is now in jail for serving this sentence.
The day before her imprisonment, she recorded a video with a friend, who is a refugee in the Netherlands. We have translated the last minutes of this video :
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Video with English subtitles :
You can also find this petition and its first petitioners following the link : http://www.la-srf.fr/article/pétition-pour-la-libération-de-mahnaz-mohammadi
PETITION FOR THE RELEASE OF IRANIAN FILMMAKER MAHNAZ MOHAMMADI
>> To sign the petition, please send an e-mail to : hrosiaux@la-srf.fr
Mahnaz Mohammadi, Iranian filmmaker and women’s rights activist, was sentenced to five years of imprisonment and charged with 'Plotting against State Security' and 'Propaganda against the regime' of Tehran.
It is with the deepest concern that we learnt about the conviction of Iranian filmmaker Mahnaz Mohammadi, sentenced to five years of prison. She was incarcerated on June 7th 2014, in Evin Prison in the North of Tehran.
Mahnaz Mohammadi’s film 'Women Without Shadows' won awards in many countries. Because of of the stand she has made and her political activism, she has been in the crosshairs of the Iranian authorities for several years. This is not the first time she has been sentenced to imprisonment for her work. Her contribution to Rakhshan Bani-Etemad’s documentary 'We Are Half of Iran's Population', about the June 2009 presidential elections, led to her arrest on June 26th 2011. She has also had her work tools confiscated, and her passport.
According to Mohammadi, the documentaries she shot for the BBC are the principal reason for this new conviction, as well as her cooperation with Al-Jazeera and Western Medias such as Radio France or Radio 'Voix de l’Amérique'.
Here, we use her own moving words to express the full support of the community of filmmakers against this huge injustice: 'I am a woman, I am a filmmaker, two sufficient grounds to be guilty in this country'.
The Film Directors’ Guild (Société des réalisateurs de films) calls for the mobilization of all efforts and all resources. We urge the government, especially the French Minister for Culture and Communication, to do everything possible to effect the release of Mahnaz Mohammadi without delay. We resolutely condemn this new attack made to freedom of creation and expression in Iran.
Pascale Ferran, Katell Quillévéré et Christophe Ruggia
Co-Président of The Film Dir ectors’ Guild (Société des réalisateurs de films)
First undersigning organizations : l’ACID, ADDOC, l’ARP, la Cinémathèque française, le Festival de Cannes, La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, la Semaine de la Critique, le Groupe 25 Images la SACD, la SCAM, Le Syndicat Français de la Critique de Cinéma, L'UCMF, l’UNEVI,...
First signatories : Hiam Abbass, Chantal Ackerman, Solveig Anspach, Yvan Attal, Christophe Barratier, Xavier Beauvois, Lucas Belvaux, Djamel Bensalah, Julie Bertuccelli, Laurent Bouhnik, Stéphane Brizé, Laurent Cantet, Stéphane Cazes, Laurent Chevalier, Malik Chibane, Jacques Cluzaud, Jean-Louis Comolli, Jérôme Cornuau, Catherine Corsini, Constantin Costa-Gavras, Miguel Courtois, Émilie Deleuze, Lola Doillon, Ariane Doublet, Jean-Pierre Duret, Philomène Esposito, Philippe Faucon, René Féret, Laurence Ferreira Barbosa, Emmanuel Finkiel, Tony Gatlif, Thomas Gilou, Fabienne Godet, Laurent Hey nemann, Caroline Huppert, Gilles Jacob, Agnès Jaoui, Arthur Joffé, Sam Karmann, Cédric Klapisch, Jan Kounen, Eric Lartigau, Philippe Le Guay, Julie Lopes-Curval, Jacques Maillot, Anna Novion, Michel Ocelot, Nicolas Philibert, Brigitte Roüan, Andrea Santana, Riad Sattouf, Reza Serkanian, Coline Serreau, Charlotte Silvera, Claire Simon, Frédéric Sojcher, Juan Solanas, Bertrand Tavernier, Pascal Thomas, Danièle Thompson, Eric Tolédano, Serge Toubiana, Daniel Vigne...
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