At Cannes, Director Rasoulof Discusses Decision To Flee Iran

ferl.org – Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof recalled how he had to decide within hours whether to go into exile or serve a prison sentence, saying it was still difficult to talk about it during a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival on May 25. Rasoulof was in town for the premiere of his new drama The Seed Of The Sacred Fig almost two weeks after fleeing Iran in the wake of his sentencing to eight years in prison and flogging. “I had to say to myself, well, do I want to be in prison, or should I leave Iran, geographic Iran, and join the cultural Iran that exists beyond its borders?” he said “It’s not an easy decision to take.”