Mohammad Rasoulof

Iranian independent director, screenwriter, and producer Mohammad Rasoulof’s first film, The Twilight (2002) was named Best Film at the Fajr Film Festival. After making Iron Island (2005), he faced censorship and increased difficulty in making films. Until then, his cinema relied on allegorical narratives; afterward, he opted for a more direct form of engagement. His next films won awards in the Un Certain Regard section of the Festival de Cannes: Best Director for Goodbye (2011), the FIPRESCI Prize for Manuscripts Don’t Burn (2013), and the Prix Un Certain Regard for A Man of Integrity (2017). In 2017, accused of ‘endangering national security’, he was barred from leaving Iran. Despite these various limitations, he produced and wrote in 2019 The Red Hatchback and Son-Mother. In 2020, he directed There Is No Evil, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. He was arrested in 2022 after signing a petition criticizing the government crackdown on protests following the deadly collapse of some buildings. After his release, he started working on The Seed of the Sacred Fig under drastic circumstances. Following the film’s selection for Cannes in 2024, he faced pressure to withdraw it. Following another prison sentence, Rasoulof escaped Iran for Europe. To date, Rasoulof has produced eight feature films, none of which have been screened in Iran due to censorship, although his films enjoy a wide audience abroad.