Swedish-Iranian filmmaker Maryam Moghaddam and her partner Behtash Sanaeeha have been sentenced to 14 months imprisonment by Iran’s Revolutionary Court, suspended for five years.
The duo, who directed Berlinale 2024 Competition entry My Favourite Cake, received their sentences at the start of April from Branch 26 of the court, after the end of the Nowruz holiday. The film’s producer Gholamreza Mousavi has also been convicted.
The film was charged with ‘propaganda against the Islamic Republic’, ‘producing obscene content’ and ‘screening without permission’. Its specific breaches included not observing hijab-wearing requirements for its lead actress, Lili Farhadpour, and participating in foreign festivals without approval, including the Berlinale.
The three defendants also received suspended one-year prison sentences for ‘participating in the production of obscene content’; and had their filming equipment confiscated.
Moghaddam and Sanaeeha have been ordered to pay a fine of 400m Iranian Rials ($9,498) to the state treasury; with separate fines of 200m IRR ($4,749) each for the three defendants for the screening charges.
Other crew members including cinematographer Mohamad Hadadi and several actors have also received fines.
“I feel like I won,” said Moghaddam, speaking to Swedish radio station Sveriges Radio following the sentence. “We knew that if we were going to stand against something we thought was wrong, we had to take a risk. You have to risk otherwise nothing will change through the regime, to break Iran’s censorship rules.”
Moghaddam described the legal process as “theatre”, but says the support she has received from the international film community has been valuable. “There is so much hope for a kind, friendly world out there thinking of each other.”
A petition calling for the duo to have all charges against them dropped has received over 18,000 signatures, including from the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk, festival directors Tricia Tuttle and Alberto Barbera, and filmmakers Celine Sciamma, Pedro Almodovar and Joachim Trier.
The Directors Guild of Iran has condemned the ruling. “The conviction of a film made with official permission from the Cinema Organization and internationally acclaimed does not help solve cinema’s problems, but signals concerning treatment of independent works,” said the Guild in a statement.
Confiscation
My Favourite Cake follows a 70-year-old single woman who chooses to revive her love life following a chance encounter with a man in a café. The film received a production permit from the Iranian government to shoot in Tehran in autumn 2022.
However, Moghaddam and Sanaeeha had their passports confiscated when trying to travel to Paris for post-production in September 2023, and were unable to attend the world premiere in Berlin in February 2024.
The Berlinale is among the film organisations to have voiced its support for the filmmakers, both following their passport confiscation, and ahead of its festival selection.
Moghaddam and Sanaeeha are the latest in a succession of Iranian filmmakers charged by the autocratic regime in recent years. Mohammad Rasoulof fled the country in May last year ahead of the world premiere of his The Seed Of The Sacred Fig in Cannes, with the film going on to an Oscar nomination last month; while Jafar Panahi was imprisoned in 2022 for supporting Rasoulof. Panahi was released in February 2023 after going on hunger strike; he will screen in Cannes next month with A Simple Accident.
France’s Totem Films handles world sales on My Favourite Cake. The film went on an extensive festival tour after Berlin, including Karlovy Vary, Edinburgh, Rio de Janeiro, Busan and Tallinn; and was released in September 2024 by Curzon in UK-Ireland, grossing over £125,000.
No comments yet