Mohammad Rasoulof Released From Iran’s Notorious Evin Jail For Health Reasons

Dissident Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof was released from prison over the weekend, according to Iranian news outlets.

Rasoulof, who won the Berlinale Golden Bear in 2020 for There Is No Evil, was arrested last July with fellow filmmaker Mostafa Al-Ahmad.

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He was detained after signing a petition titled ‘Lay Down Your Arms” calling on security forces to exercise restraint in relation to popular protests over a deadly building collapse.

Rasoulof was already on medical leave when news he was to be officially released on a temporary basis came through.

The director’s lawyer Maryam Kianersi who announced a two-week suspension of his sentence on January 11 for health reasons, told the French news agency AFP his release had been extended on a temporary basis.

There was no indication of how long Rasoulof would remain out of jail. There is no news on Al-Ahmad who was arrested at the same time as Rasoulof.

In a Tweet posted on Monday, the director said his thoughts were with inmates he had left behind in Evin.

“I was still on medical leave when I was notified of my release an hour ago,” he wrote. “Those who come out of prison know that they leave a part of themselves with their companions and associates who remain in prison. I wish for their release.”

The lifting of Rasoulof’s detention comes just days after Jafar Panahi was released from Evin on bail. Panahi had been arrested a few days after Rasoulof and Al-Ahmad after going to enquire about their whereabouts.

The arrests of the filmmakers took place under a crackdown against dissent by Iran’s authoritarian Islamic Republic regime over the summer and preceded the “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising sparked by the killing of Mahsa Amini.

Since then thousands of protestors have been arrested while the government has attempted to quell the protests with force and has recently begun executing protestors.

Like Panahi, Rasoulof has long been in the crosshairs of Iran’s hardline Islamic Republic government.

He has been arrested and had his passport confiscated a number of times over the past 15 years for his films exposing the reality of living under its strict governance, including Manuscripts Don’t Burn (2013) and A Man Of Integrity (2017).

Both films world premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard where they won the Fipresci prize and best film prize respectively.

Rasoulof made it to Cannes in 2017 with A Man Of Integrity and travelled the festival circuit with the film until his passport was confiscated on his return from Telluride in September of that year.

He has not left Iran since and the world premiere and Golden Bear win for his last film There Is No Evil took place in his absence.

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