The Thessaloniki International Film Festival condemns in the strongest terms the arrest of Iranian directors Jafar Panahi, Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Aleahmad and demands their immediate release.
The Thessaloniki Film Festival was one of the first to showcase the Iranian cinema worldwide and we are deeply concerned and dismayed by the prosecutions, the censorship and the restriction of artistic creation.
The arrest of the three Iranian directors is a direct attack to human rights and to the freedom of expression. It is the most recent effort to silence the artists in Iran, and in May it led to the arrest of four female documentary filmmakers Firouzeh Khosravani, Mina Keshavarz, Parisa Anvari, and Shilan Saadi and photojournalist Reihane Taravati.
We stand by their side.
