Protest On The Arrest Of Jafar Panahi

The Association of Filmmakers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo Film Festival and production companies Deblokada, Refresh, SCCA/Pro.ba, Dokument and others strongly condemn the arrest of the renowned Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi.

On Monday, March 1st, Panahi was arrested by the Iranian security forces and taken to an unknown location, according to reports by foreign media. He had been also prevented from travelling to this year’s International Film Festival in Berlin where he had been invited as an honorary guest. 

Jafar Panahi is one of the most important Iranian film authors in the world. In 1995, his film WHITE BALLOON won the Golden Camera, and the film CIRCLE won the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion in 2000. His film OFFSIDE was a Silver Bear winner in 2006 in Berlin. Jafar Panahi was one of the important guests of the Sarajevo Film Festival. In 2001, he presented the awarded film CIRCLE in Sarajevo, whereas his film the WHITE BALLOON had opened the first Sarajevo Film Festival.

We would like to use this opportunity to express the concern regarding the Panahi’s arrest, and to condemn any act of denial of artistic and civil freedom, and violation of basic human rights.

The Association of Filmmakers of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Sarajevo Film Festival
Deblokada
Refresh
SCCA/Pro.ba
Dokument

Filmmakers: Namik Kabil, Jasmila Žbanić, Danis Tanović, Pjer Žalica, Srđan Vuletić, Elma Tataragić, Amra Bakšić Čamo, Ademir Kenović, Mirsad Purivatra, Nedžad Begović, Milenko Prstojević, Faruk Lončarević, Aida Begić Zubčević, Ines Tanović, Elmir Jukić and others.