June 17, 2016
An Iranian director has been sentenced to 223 lashes for his latest film, but says he has no interest in politics and just wants to make interesting movies.
He seems to have succeeded all too well.
Keywan Karimi ran into trouble with the Pasdaran over a documentary he shot called, “Writing on the City.” It is about graffiti written on walls in Tehran.
He spent 15 days in solitary confinement in 2013 and was accused of making “propaganda against the regime” and “insulting religious values” with his film.
Since his arrest, he told Agence France Presse (AFP), several other “ridiculous” charges have been added—including drinking alcohol, having extramarital affairs and making pornography.
“All I was doing was filming what was being written on the walls of Tehran,”—he said.
Karimi, 33, a member of the Kurdish minority, was sentenced to six years in prison in 2015. But after an outcry, in which such directors as Jafar Panahi and Mohsen Makhmalbaf rallied to his support, five years of the term were suspended.
The sentence of the 233 lashes—a huge number in Iran—has not, however, been lifted, and the prison authorities are now insisting that the lashing and one year’s imprisonment be carried out.
“I am not a political activist,” Karimi told AFP. “I am not being sent to prison because I oppose the regime, but because I am a filmmaker.”
The police have contacted him several times but have not yet brought him to prison to be whipped and serve his year-long sentence, he said. “I am waiting for them to come for me.”
Karimi said that he could have emigrated “quite easily, but I want to remain to defend my right to live my life. The fact that my artistic activity is seen as an act of political opposition says a lot about the situation in Iran,” he said.
“I do not want to be turned into a hero. Whether my films are seen and I become well-known is really secondary. Cinema is what gives sense to my life.”
“Writing on the City” has been shown at film festivals in France, Spain and Switzerland.
