Culture

VOA – Iranian authorities have imposed a travel ban on leading filmmaker Masoud Kimiai, local media reported Monday, after he expressed support for protests that have gripped the Islamic republic for months. Iran has seen a wave of demonstrations that erupted after the September 16 death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, an ethnic Kurd, following her arrest for allegedly …

RFL/RE – Iranian film producer Javad Norouzbeigi says a legal case has been filed against him due to the production of his banned prizewinning film, Leila’s Brothers. The semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted Javad Norouzbeigi as saying that he was summoned to the prosecutor’s office, “where the title of the accusation against me was the production of Leila’s Brothers.”Before its release last …

Iranwire – An Iranian singer has been arrested after releasing songs in support of the anti-government protest movement that has swept the country for nearly four months, IranWire reports. Fardin Naji was taken into custody on January 7 when armed forces stormed his house in Tehran and confiscated his personal electronic devices, according to relatives. In a short phone call …

VOA – After being arrested for creating antigovernment propaganda in 2010, the Iranian director Jafar Panahi was banned from making films for 20 years. Since then, he’s made five widely acclaimed features. His latest, No Bears, opens soon in U.S. theaters while Panahi is in prison. In July, Panahi went to the Tehran prosecutor’s office to inquire about the arrest of …

VOA – Iranian director Asghar Farhadi on Tuesday urged the release of Taraneh Alidoosti, who has starred in four of his films, after the actor’s arrest for supporting the three-month protest movement. Alidoosti, 38, was arrested on Saturday, official media said, after making a string of social media posts supporting the protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death — including removing …

RFL/RE – Iran arrested a prominent actor on December 17 after she voiced support for the 3-month-old protest movement triggered by the death of a woman in custody, Iranian media reported. Taraneh Alidoosti, 38, was detained for “publishing false and distorted content and inciting chaos,” the Tasnim news agency reported. She is best known for her role in the Oscar-winning …

Iranwire – Iran’s Union of Cinema Screenwriters says it has suspended its activities to protest the government’s continued denial of the people’s demand for change, amid protests that have convulsed the country for 12 weeks. “Until the end of the current situation, union members are free to write for others or for themselves or stop their professional activities”, the association’s …

RFL/RE – Popular Iranian film and television actress Mitra Hajjar has been arrested, the IRNA news agency reported on December 3. Mehdi Kohian, a member of a group that monitors artists’ arrests, has confirmed Hajjar’s detention. The reason for the arrest of Hajjar, who is also an environmental activist, was not immediately clear. Last month, Hajjar was one of the …

Iranwire – Iranian police arrested a member of Iran’s persecuted Baha’i religious minority on Tuesday and took him to an unknown location, IranWire understands.  Armed forces raided the workplace and home of Homayoun Khanlori, a business owner and theater actor, in the northern city of Rasht. Agents confiscated Khanlori’s personal electronic devices before then detaining him.  Khanlori owns a company selling and installing …

Al-Monitor – Iran’s main motion picture association, publicly known as the House of Cinema, has compiled a list of more than 100 media personalities, including cinema, theater and music artists, who have been detained, banned from working or leaving the country, and deprived of their ongoing contracts due to online activities in support of protests or personally joining the rallies. Speaking to …