Iran arrests 3rd outspoken filmmaker in escalating crackdown

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran has arrested an internationally renowned filmmaker, several newspapers reported Tuesday, the third Iranian director to be locked up in less than a week as the government escalates a crackdown on the country’s celebrated cinema industry. Panahi has won multiple festival awards, including the 2015 Berlin Golden Bear for “Taxi,” a wide-ranging meditation on poverty, sexism and censorship in Iran, and the Venice Golden Lion in 2000 for “The Circle,” a deep dive into women’s lives in Iran’s patriarchal society. The Berlin International Film Festival said it was “dismayed and outraged” to hear of Panahi’s arrest, calling it “another violation of freedom of expression and freedom of the arts.” His detention came after the arrest of two other Iranian filmmakers, Mohamad Rasoulof and Mostafa al-Ahmad. Cannes sharply condemned the arrests of the three filmmakers and “the wave of repression obviously in progress in Iran against its artists.” PEN America, a literary and free speech organization, said their detention marks a “brazen violation of their human right to free expression and speech.” Several foreigners have also landed in Iranian prison in recent weeks, including two French citizens, a Swedish tourist, a Polish scientist and others, spurring concerns that Iran is trying to leverage them as bargaining chips in negotiations.