The International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR) has published a statement expressing its “full and heartfelt solidarity” with those protesting in Iran for “their basic human rights and the freedom of expression.”
Protests calling for the fall of the clerical establishment have swept Iran since Mahsa Amini’s death in custody on September 16 while being detained by the morality police in Tehran for “inappropriate attire”.
The unrest is now considered the most serious challenge to the Islamic Republic since its inception in 1979.
In a statement titled, Solidarity with the People of Iran, the ICFR said: “This is a revolution which was sparked off by women and which unites all the ethnic, religious, and social parts of the population; a revolution for a free and worthy life, liberated from the ruling of hateful autocrats who have used every tool for suppression, oppression and atrocity; from terror to prison and execution to suppress the people of Iran and to bury them and their dreams of a decent life.”
The statement called on the Iranian authorities to immediately and unconditionally stop the use of any force and violence, to release all those arrested during the protests, and to “allow the people of Iran to design the society they wish to live in.”
The statement concluded: “We encourage all film and culture institutions around the world to do the same.”
The International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk was founded by the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, International Film Festival Rotterdam and the European Film Academy.
Its mission is to advocate for and to act in solidarity with filmmakers at risk. In July, the ICFR protested the wave of arrests amongst the filmmaking and artistic communities in Tehran, highlighting the cases of filmmakers Jafar Panahi, Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad.
On Monday (October 11), around 40 members of the UK filmmaking community came together at the BFI Southbank yesterday to stand in solidarity with Panahi, the women leading the protest movement in Iran and all those demonstrating for freedom in the country.
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