Eight hundred film industry professionals, including actresses Juliette Binoche, Marion Cotillard, and Camille Cottin, have signed a statement condemning the Iranian government’s weeks-long campaign of mass murder and torture of its people in response to their protests, Deadline reported on Wednesday.
The statement read, in part, “We, the undersigned, with anger, grief, and a deep sense of moral responsibility, condemn in the strongest possible terms the organized crimes committed by the Islamic Republic of Iran against protesting civilians. In response to the widespread and peaceful protests of the Iranian people against repression, poverty, discrimination, and structural injustice, the Islamic Republic has chosen not to listen to the voices of its people but to respond with live ammunition, mass killings, widespread arrests, torture, enforced disappearances, and a nationwide shutdown of the internet."
"According to independent reports and credible sources, more than three thousand defenseless citizens, including women, adolescents, and children, have been killed… The deliberate shutdown of the internet and the suppression of media constitute a clear attempt to conceal these crimes and prevent the documentation of truth. These actions represent a blatant and systematic violation of all fundamental human rights, including the right to life, liberty, human dignity, and security, and constitute a clear case of crimes against humanity.”
Among the signatories were Iranian expat film professionals, including Zar Amir Ebrahimi (who co-directed the film, Tatami, with Guy Nattiv), Goldshifteh Farahani (who has appeared in two films directed by Eran Riklis, Shelter and Reading Lolita in Tel Aviv), Sepideh Farsi, and Shirin Neshat; producers and directors such as Claire Simon, Tarek Saleh, Lawrence Bender, Dominik Moll, Florian Zeller, Gabe Kingler, and Mohanad Yaqubi, and Israeli director Nadav Lapid.
Iranian protesters have decried the lack of support from most celebrities and cultural figures until now. Many of the celebrities who have been the most vocal about the war in Gaza, including Emma Stone, Susan Sarandon, Mark Ruffalo, and others, have been silent on the killings of protesters in Iran, which are believed to total more than 16,000 deaths already.
In addition, Variety reported that Iranian director Jafar Panahi, who was repeatedly harassed and imprisoned by the regime and has fled Iran, has denounced the killing of filmmaker Javad Ganji.
Filmmaker killed by IRGC forces during protests
Ganji, 39, an assistant director, was shot to death by Iranian forces in Tehran on January 9. Government agents then put a banner used by the Basij volunteer paramilitary organization, which is affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, on Ganji’s home to brand him as a regime supporter, rather than a dissident.
Panahi wrote on Instagram, “The regime is attempting to erase its massacre of protesters by intimidating artists, fabricating loyalty narratives, and burying the truth under judicial repression,” and pointed out that other filmmakers, Majid Barzegar and Behtash Sanaeiha, “were separately summoned and harshly interrogated for hours over their recent joint statement condemning state violence and repression.”