An Iranian filmmaker said authorities raided the offices and homes of several filmmakers and other industry professionals and arrested some of them.
“Security forces made some arrests and confiscated film production equipment during raids conducted in recent days,” Mohammad Rasoulof announced in a statement signed by dozens of movie industry professionals on his Instagram account late Saturday.
The statement condemned the actions and called them “illegal.” In a separate Instagram post, Rasoulof identified two of the detained filmmakers as Firouzeh Khosravani and Mina Keshavarz.
Iranian media and authorities have not commented on the raids and no additional details were immediately available.
Rasoulof won the Berlin Film Festival’s top prize in 2020 for his film “There Is No Evil.” He is now banned from making films and leaving the country.
Shortly after receiving the award he was sentenced to a year in prison for three films he made that authorities found to be “propaganda against the system.”
