The Iranian film-makers Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof have condemned the internet blackout in their country as a “blatant tool of repression” intended to conceal violence against protesters, amid an outpouring of solidarity from artists in the diaspora.
Panahi, a Palme d’Or-winning film-maker who the Iranian regime sentenced last month in absentia to a year in prison for “propaganda activities”, and Rasoulof, a prominent film-maker who fled Iran in 2024 while appealing against a prison sentence and now lives in exile in Europe, posted a joint statement on social media on Saturday.
