Berliner Tageblatt - Director Rasoulof, who fled Iran, will attend Cannes: organisers

The director will be in Cannes on Friday when "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" competes for the top prize Palme d'Or, festival director Thierry Fremaux said.

An outspoken critic of the Iranian government, Rasoulof served two terms in Iranian jails over previous films and had his passport withdrawn in 2017.

His new film tells the story of a judge's struggles amid political unrest in Tehran, and he had come under pressure to withdraw it from Cannes before the festival.

He was then sentenced to eight years in prison for "collusion against national security".

On the eve of the festival last week, he revealed that he had escaped Iran, later telling The Guardian that he made an "exhausting and extremely dangerous" journey on foot.

It was not previously clear if he would attend Cannes after finding asylum in Germany.

Rasoulof told AFP last week that he feared for the "safety and well-being" of fellow filmmakers in Iran.

"The global film community must provide strong support to the makers of these films," he said in a statement.

He won the Berlin Film Festival's top prize, the Golden Bear, in 2020 for "There Is No Evil".

J.Bergmann--BTB