A petition to immediately free Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha
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Cinema Accused by the Tehran regime of "obscenity", the directors of "My Persian Garden" will be tried on March 1st
Last year at the Berlinale where My Favourite Cake was in competition, the authors were not allowed to accompany it. The Tehran regime confiscated their passports, preventing them from leaving. The film was released in theaters a few weeks ago, but once again Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha have remained stranded in Iran awaiting their trial, the date of which has now been set for March 1st. The Iranian authorities accuse the two directors of having made an “obscene” film, “offensive to public morals”, “propagandistic against the regime” and “illegally screened without government permission for distribution”; very serious charges that could carry very heavy sentences. A petition has been launched against this latest act of censorship and violence against artistic freedom, asking the authorities of the Islamic Republic to “immediately and unconditionally cancel all charges against Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha”. The text, signed by artists, representatives of cultural institutions from all over the world – including Alberto Barbera, director of the Venice Film Festival; Vanja Kalujercic, director of the Rotterdam Film Festival; Celine Sciamma, the Dardennes, Pedro Almodovar, Jafar Panahi, Mohammad Rasoulof, Laura Poitras – reads: «We stand by Maryam and Behtash and their freedom and their right to create and express themselves, as every director and artist should be able to do».
My Persian Garden tells the story of present-day Iran through the experience of a wonderful female figure, played by the magnificent Lili Farhadpour, a widow of about seventy who has never remarried, who wakes up at midday, listens to music, dances alone, lovingly cultivates her garden, and chats with her friends at lunch about love affairs, affirming a "scandalous" independence.
One day she meets a man her age, and in the long night they spend together at her house dancing, drinking, doing things forbidden for women in Iranian films – such as showing them at home without a veil – the two experience the different stages of a relationship almost as if the time of life were all in those handful of hours, in a delicate and at the same time unruly cinematographic form that captures universal human emotions and illuminates Iranian reality.
"IF YOU WANT something to change, you have to fight. If we all run away, we will never win. We must take back what belongs to us," they said on these pages. We are with them. To sign: www.change.org/p/iran-clear-maryam-behtash-of-all-charges-now
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