One of Iran’s most important film makers, Jafar Panahi, is today incarcerated in the sadly notorious Evin political prison.
Behind bars for 80 days now, Jafar Panahi managed to get out the few words of the letter published on line by La Règle du jeu, words that deeply moved all who were present at the Festival when they were read last Saturday, at the top of the stairs, at Cannes.
By attacking a great artist of international renown like Jafar Panahi, the authorities of the Islamic Republic have made it clear that, from now on, they will stop at nothing to carry out their policy of repression to the ultimate.
A politically committed film maker whose works deal with Iranian society, Jafar Panahi has always chosen to remain in Iran, despite threats from the government. His only mistake was to support MirHossein Moussavi, a candidate who was nonetheless selected by the Iranian regime during the last presidential election. Today the Iranian government is accusing him of currently making a film against the regime, an accusation Panahi has refuted in his letter.
This is why we demand the immediate and unconditional release of the Iranian film maker.

Signatories:

Robert Redford,
‎Michael Moore‎,
Martin Scorsese,
Shirin Neshat,
Abbas Bakhtiari,
Shoja Azari,
Bertrand Tarvenier,
Julie Depardieu,
Isabelle Huppert,
Xavier Beauvois
Agnès Varda,
Amos Gitai,
Josiane Balasko,
Claude Lanzmann,
Danièle Thompson,
Emmanuel Carrère,
Bernard-Henri Lévy,
Atiq Rahimi,
Marjane Satrapi,
Armin Arefi,
Anouk Aimée,
Yann Moix,
Bahman Ghobadi,
Pierre Richard,
Xavier Giannoli,
Mohsen Makhmalbaf,
Abderrahman Sissoko,
Patricio Guzmán,
Paul Thomas Anderson,
‎Joel & Ethan Coen,
‎Francis Ford Coppola,
‎Jonathan Demme,
‎Robert De Niro,
‎Curtis Hanson,
‎Jim Jarmusch,
‎Ang Lee,
‎Richard Linklater,
‎Terrence Malick,
‎James Schamus,
‎Paul Schrader,
‎Steven Soderbergh,
‎Steven Spielberg,
‎Oliver Stone,
‎Frederick Wiseman,
Laurent David Samama,
Maria de França