Mitra Farahani, an Iranian film-maker, was arrested last week as she landed in Teheran according to the French website Rue89. She has been under the eye of religious authorities of the country since her movie Taboos came out, a documentary with fiction scenes about sexual desire and frustration among Iranians.
The imprisonnement of artists keeps going on in Iran after Bahman Gobadi was jailed a week after his return from Cannes. This imprisonnement is probably linked with his denounciation of the repression of young musicians. Now it’s Mitra Farahani’s turn.
The artist was transferred to Evin’s prison, where many political opponents are jailed. This imprisonnement is due to her sulfurous work according to religious authorities. In 2002, she directed a documentary Just a girl dealing with sexual reassignment of gays in order for them to live their sexuality. She received a TeddyBear in the Berlin festival for her movie.
In her movie Taboos, she mixed documentary with a erotic story acted by French actors and inspired by a poem of Iraj Mirza, whose work has been forbidden since the Islamic Revolution. SHe broke a lot of taboos, which embody complex and hard problems to solve for the theocratic regime.
She declared about her movie that « Absolutely everyone has a double life in Teheran.And evreybody knows that everybody has a double life.». Her imprisonnement is not a surprise, some people working on the film have already been harassed by the secret services.
Taboos was a huge success in Iran, even if the film was not legal. Yet Farahani’s destiny depends on the current events in Iran.
Thomas PRADO pour www.buddhachannel.tv
