Latest news with #BehtashSanaeeha
Euronews
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
‘My Favourite Cake' directors given suspended prison sentence in Iran for showing unveiled woman
ADVERTISEMENT Iranian directors Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha have been given a 14-month suspended jail sentence by an Iranian court on charges that include alleged production of obscene content in their Berlinale-premiering film My Favourite Cake – our joint Number 1 film of 2024 alongside Mohammad Rasoulof's Oscar nominated film The Seed of the Sacred Fig . After months of interrogations and travel bans over the past two years — which prevented them from attending the 2024 Berlin premiere – Moghaddam and Sanaeeha had been charged with making a film labeled as 'obscene' and 'offending public morality.' They were also accused of 'propaganda against the regime' and other charges claiming the film was 'unlawfully' screened without the Iranian authorities' permits for distribution. The Iranian court also convicted My Favourite Cake producer Gholamreza Mousavi to the same sentence as the directors, which also includes a fine of 400 million Iranian Rials (€8,240). My Favourite Cake follows a lonely septuagenarian widow Mahin (Lily Farhadpour) in Tehran who rediscovers her desires in a country where women's rights are heavily restricted. 'We wanted to tell the story of the reality of our lives, which is about those forbidden things like singing, dancing, not wearing hijab at home, which no one does at home,' Moghaddam previously said. Esmael Mehrabi and Lily Farhadpour holding a picture of directors Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha, who were banned from travelling to Berlin for the film premiere Getty The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran commented on the verdict: 'Artists in Iran endure significant hardships, including increasing censorship, arbitrary detentions and the constant threat of legal repercussions for expressing dissent through their work.' The 14-month sentence, which has been suspended for five years, comes after the global film community rallied in support of the directors with a petition whose signatories included Pedro Almodóvar, Juliette Binoche and the aforementioned Mohammad Rasoulof . Mohammad Rasoulof speaks to Euronews Culture Euronews Culture In our interview with Mohammad Rasoulof, he stated: 'I'd like to flag up the filmmakers of My Favourite Cake, Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha, who are undergoing all sorts of problems inside Iran. They are banned from leaving the country because of their films, and in fact, they are being investigated for similar charges for spreading prostitution and corruption on Earth, for instance. This atmosphere will be the cause of a series of new problems because in the world now, it's not possible to control content, like the Iranian regime does. The result of this is more and more repression, and acts of subversion will surface, as the government cannot control everything.' You can read the full interview here . In our review for My Favourite Cake , we wrote: 'My Favourite Cake is a gently subversive film that dares to pepper radicalism within a poignant tragicomedy. (...) Behind a seemingly harmless set up and a Linklater-ish second half lies messages of female empowerment that are not tolerated under the nation's repressive regime. Driven by two magnificent central performances, which make the allegorically loaded epilogue truly resonant, Moghaddam and Sanaeeh's film is a subtle but powerful snapshot of the harsh realities facing Iranian women, as well as a commentary about what could befall those daring to take control of their destinies. It's impressive and haunting in equal measure.'
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Iranian ‘My Favourite Cake' Filmmakers Receive Suspended Jail Sentence & Fines For Showing Actress Without Hijab
Iranian directors Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moghadam have received a 14-month jail sentence as well as $14,000 worth of fines related to their feature My Favourite Cake which world premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2024. The filmmaking duo and their producer and Gholamreza Mousavi have been in the crosshairs of Iran's authoritarian Islamic Republic regime since early 2023 over the heartwarming drama about an elderly widow who reconnects with life's small pleasures in the face of solitude. More from Deadline Juliette Binoche, Pedro Almodóvar & Mohammad Rasoulof Join 3,000 Signatories Of Petition In Support Of Iranian Filmmakers Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha Iranian 'My Favourite Cake' Filmmakers Sound Alarm Over Court Summons & Anonymous Death Threats Rotterdam Fest Director Expresses Solidarity For 'The Seed Of The Sacred Fig' Actress Soheila Golestani Following Iran Travel Ban Sanaeeha and Moghadam, who is also a Swedish national, were grounded by a travel ban prior to the film's world premiere in Berlin and the couple have since been subjected to an Islamic Revolutionary Court investigation. In the lead-up to the court hearing in February, they also started receiving death threats. Elements of My Favourite Cake which upset the Iranian authorities include showing the female protagonist, played by Lily Farhadpour, without a headscarf as well as the storyline around her romance with an equally lonely widower and scenes in which she dances and drinks wine with him. Court papers released by Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran this week state that Sanaeeham, Moghadam and Mousavi were convicted 'of propaganda against the Islamic Republic through dissemination of false information intended to disturb public opinion' as well as producing 'obscene content'. They were sentenced to 14 months of discretionary imprisonment, suspended for five years, and ordered to pay a fine of 400M Iranian Rials ($9.4K) to the state treasury. Additionally, the trio were also fined 200 million Iranian Rials ($4.7K) and had their equipment confiscated for screening and distributing the film without an official exhibition license. My Favourite Cake was made in the wake of Iran's 2022 Woman Life Freedom protests, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody after she was arrested for not covering her hair in accordance with the Islamic Republic's sexist rules around how women should dress. Prior to the 1979 Islamic revolution women were free to wear what they wanted. My Favourite Cake is among a number of Iranian features made in the wake of the protests showing women without their head covered. Mohamed Rasoulof's Oscar-nominated The Seed of the Secret Fig, shot undercover in Iran prior to going into exile in Germany in 2024, went further, challenging the patriarchal system on which the country is run. Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi, who is also living outside of the country, has said he will not shoot in Iran until the obligation to wear a hijab is lifted. The political persecution of Sanaeeham and Moghadam, who are stuck in Iran, has sparked concern in the international film industry. More than 3,000 cinema professionals – including Juliette Binoche, Pedro Almodóvar, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Hiam Abbass, Alberto Barbera, Tricia Tuttle and Rebecca Zlotowski – signed a petition calling for the directors to be released and the charges to be dropped ahead of the trial in February. The International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR), a joint venture between the European Film Academy, the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), which instigated the petition has called on the international film community to keep highlight the plight of Sanaeeham, Moghadam and Mousavi. Best of Deadline A Full Timeline Of Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni's 'It Ends With Us' Feud In Court, Online & In The Media 'Hacks' Season 4 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out? Everything We Know About 'Hacks' Season 4 So Far
Express Tribune
06-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Iranian artists under threat
UNDER SCRUTINY : My Favourite Cake has prompted a closer look at freedom of expression. Photo: File As makers of award-winning film My Favourite Cake face trial in Tehran, months after rapper Toomaj Salehi narrowly avoided execution, Iran continues its war on free expression, reported DW. The Iranian film My Favourite Cake is a seemingly harmless tale of two elderly people finding intimacy and affection after the loss of their respective partners. But this week the directors Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moghaddam, along with lead actor Lily Farhadpour, are on trial in Tehran for the crimes of "offending public decency and morality," "propagating debauchery" and "propaganda against the Islamic Republic." The film won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury Competition and the FIPRESCI Prizes at the Berlinale in February 2024. However, the filmmakers were banned from travelling to the event and had their passports confiscated. Apart from suggestions of sex in the film, it is assumed that Farhadpour's failure to wear a hijab during some scenes has landed the filmmakers in the Revolutionary Court. Crackdown after protests Much has been written about the arbitrary crackdown on freedom of speech and artistic expression in the wake of the 2022 "Woman, Life, Freedom" protests sparked by the police killing of 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for "improperly" wearing a hijab or headscarf. When internationally renowned rapper Toomaj Salehi released songs in support of the Amini solidarity protests, he was found guilty of "spreading propaganda against the regime," among other crimes. In April 2023, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced the musician to death. It was later overturned, though the rapper remains in prison and is facing new charges. In a video posted online, Salehi described how he was tortured during arrest, with repeated beatings resulting in fractures in his hands and leg. He added that he spent eight to nine months in solitary confinement. Artists being tortured Even before the post-2022 crackdown on artists who dare to express support for democracy and human rights, freedom of expression had long been brutally suppressed. "My friends and I have experienced years of imprisonment for our art," Iranian composer Mehdi Rajabian told DW. This included about three years in jail and three months of solitary confinement. One of his crimes was to produce albums that supported banned artists, including female vocalists who are forbidden from singing solo in Iran. He has since been prohibited from producing music within Iran - though he continues to collaborate online with artists globally. Rajabian was first jailed for three months in 2013 on charges of blasphemy, propaganda against the regime and unauthorised artistic activities. In 2015, the composer was sentenced to six years in jail. He was released on parole after spending two years at Tehran's notorious Evin prison, having also carried out a 40-day hunger strike during which he suffered severe malnourishment. Rajabian was arrested again in 2020 for working with female dancers and singers and publishing his latest album, Middle Eastern, which brought together 100 artists from across the Middle East to promote peace in the region. He is currently serving a suspended sentence and is banned from leaving Iran. "Everything is on a knife's edge," he told DW in an email written from the Mazandaran province in northern Iran. His music appeared in an advertisement for Mercedes Benz in January this year. He could be returned to prison for any activity that is disapproved of by the regime. The musician's brother, filmmaker Hossein Rajabian, concurrently served a two-and-a-half-year sentence in Evin prison for "propaganda against the state" and "insulting Islamic sanctities." The director joined his brother on a hunger strike in the jail before he was released and left Iran for Paris - where he now lives. Both had been forced to make confessions, and also endured torture, including beatings and electric shocks, as documented by Amnesty International. In 2024, at the Cannes Film Festival, Hossein Rajabian featured as part the Woman Life Freedom Project on posters featuring censored and persecuted Iranian artists, including Abdolreza Kahani, Keywan Karimi and Sepideh Farsi. Giving voice to creativity The ongoing persecution has not stopped Iranian artists from working underground to produce music and promote human and civil rights. In December 2024, Parastoo Ahmadi, an Iranian woman singer, released a video where she performed a concert in a traditional but empty venue without wearing a headscarf. She stated in a caption for the video that has 2.5 million views on YouTube, that she "wants to sing for the people I love. This is a right I could not ignore; singing for the land I love passionately." Days later, an Iranian court opened a case against the singer, arguing the performance infringes on the country's Sharia law. She was arraigned and released on bail pending a trial. As Iran's regime recently announced a boost to funds for state propaganda, dissident artists continue to find ways to express themselves. Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof's latest film, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, a thriller exploring state violence, paranoia and censorship, was inspired by the mass protests in Iran in 2022. After shooting the feature in secret - the Iranian regime had banned the director from filmmaking in 2017 - Rasoulof had to leave the production and flee the country by foot across the border. He had just been sentenced to eight years in prison and a whipping for criticising the regime. Having been produced and funded in Hamburg, The Seed of the Sacred Fig represented Germany at the Oscars, where it was shortlisted for best international feature film. As the cast and creators behind My Favourite Cake face a host of charges in Iran, their struggle has gone global as the likes of Juliette Binoche and Pedro Almodovar join 3,000-odd others to sign a petition demanding their human rights be upheld. "We stand uniformly by Maryam and Behtash and their freedom and right to create and to express themselves, just like any filmmaker and artist should be able to," stated the petition by the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk.
Euronews
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
Global filmmaking community support Iranian directors before 'propaganda' trial starts in Iran
The global film community is showing support for Iranian directing duo Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha ahead of their trial over 'propaganda against the regime' allegations. After months of interrogations and travel bans over the past two years, Moghaddam and Sanaeeha are set to face Iran's Revolutionary Court on Saturday (1 March). The charges leveled against them concern the production and distribution of their Berlinale-premiering film My Favourite Cake – our joint Number 1 film of 2024 alongside Mohammad Rasoulof's now-Oscar nominated film The Seed of the Sacred Fig. The filmmaking duo's film follows a lonely septuagenarian widow Mahin (Lily Farhadpour) in Tehran who rediscovers her desires in a country where women's rights are heavily restricted. They are charged with making a film labeled as 'obscene' and 'offending public morality.' They are also accused of 'propaganda against the regime' and other charges claiming the film was 'unlawfully' screened without the Iranian authorities' permits for distribution. Signatories of the petition, launched by the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR), include Rasoulof, who fled Iran last year to avoid prosecution related to The Seed of the Sacred Fig — as well as Pedro Almodóvar, Juliette Binoche, Agnieszka Holland, Céline Sciamma, Joachim Trier, Hiam Abbas, the directors of the Berlin, Venice and Rotterdam, as well as the European Film Academy. The petition has gathered more than 3,200 signatures so far. It reads: We, the undersigned, call upon the Islamic Republic of Iran's authorities to immediately and unconditionally clear all the charges levelled at filmmakers Maryam Moghadam & Behtash Sanaeeha. After months of interrogation, and after continuous travel bans for the past two years, they are now due to appear in Iran's Revolutionary Court on March 1st, 2025 because of their Berlinale-awarded film My Favourite Cake, which has been labelled as "obscene", as "offending public morality", as "propaganda against the regime", and as 'unlawfully' screened without the authorities' permits for distribution. In the light of these persecutions, we stand uniformly by Maryam & Behtash and their freedom and right to create and to express themselves, just like any filmmaker and artist should be able to.' In our interview with Mohammad Rasoulof, he stated: 'I'd like to flag up the filmmakers of My Favourite Cake, Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha, who are undergoing all sorts of problems inside Iran. They are banned from leaving the country because of their films, and in fact, they are being investigated for similar charges for spreading prostitution and corruption on Earth, for instance. This atmosphere will be the cause of a series of new problems because in the world now, it's not possible to control content, like the Iranian regime does. The result of this is more and more repression, and acts of subversion will surface, as the government cannot control everything.' You can read the full interview here. In our review for My Favourite Cake, we wrote: 'My Favourite Cake is a gently subversive film that dares to pepper radicalism within a poignant tragicomedy. (...) Behind a seemingly harmless set up and a Linklater-ish second half lies messages of female empowerment that are not tolerated under the nation's repressive regime. Driven by two magnificent central performances, which make the allegorically loaded epilogue truly resonant, Moghaddam and Sanaeeh's film is a subtle but powerful snapshot of the harsh realities facing Iranian women, as well as a commentary about what could befall those daring to take control of their destinies. It's impressive and haunting in equal measure.'
