Rasoulof was arrested in July of last year after speaking out on social media against the repression of civil protestors in the country.
Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof has been released after more than six months in incarceration in Tehran’s Evin prison, according to local media reports.
Rasoulof, whose 2020 film, There is No Evil, won the top prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, is one of several prominent artists, athletes and other celebrities detained in recent months for criticising authorities.
The Shargh newspaper, which is associated with the country’s reform movement, said Rasoulof had recently been furloughed from prison and was formally released, without specifying the dates or providing further information. There was no official comment.
Rasoulof was arrested in July 2022 for criticising the government’s crackdown on protests in the southwestern city of Abadan over a deadly building collapse that killed over 40 people.
After the collapse of a building in May in the Iranian city of Abadan prompted unrest and a violent crackdown by security forces, a group of Iranian filmmakers led by Rasoulof published an open letter calling on the security forces to “lay down their arms” and signed by at least 70 Iranian filmmakers and film industry professionals.
Rasoulof posted on Instagram today: “Those that get out of jail know they leave a part of themselves with their companions and prisoners in prison. I wish for their release.”
Earlier this month, Rasoulof’s friend and fellow Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi was also temporarily released from prison in Iran, three days after he went on a hunger strike.
