French actresses Juliette Binoche, Marion Cotillard and Camille Cottin as well as Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos have joined 800 cinema professionals in a statement condemning the Iranian government’s killing and torture of its own people.
“We, the undersigned, with anger, grief, and a deep sense of moral responsibility, condemn in the strongest possible terms the organised crimes committed by the Islamic Republic of Iran against protesting civilians,” read the statement.
“In response to the widespread and peaceful protests of the Iranian people against repression, poverty, discrimination, and structural injustice, the Islamic Republic has chosen not to listen to the voices of its people, but to respond with live ammunition, mass killings, widespread arrests, torture, enforced disappearances, and a nationwide shutdown of the internet. According to independent reports and credible sources, more than three thousand defenceless citizens including women, adolescents, and children have been killed.”
The deliberate shutdown of the internet and the suppression of media constitute a clear attempt to conceal these crimes and prevent the documentation of truth. These actions represent a blatant and systematic violation of all fundamental human rights, including the right to life, liberty, human dignity, and security, and constitute a clear case of crimes against humanity.”
The statement comes two-and-a-half weeks into a harsh crackdown by Iran’s hardline Islamic Republic aimed at shutting down countrywide protests.
The extent of the government violence is unclear due to an Internet blackout since January 8, but as many as 16,5000 people are believed to have been killed and hundreds of thousands injured as a result of Islamic Republic officers firing into crowds.
Tens of thousands of protestors have also been incarcerated, with images emerging of torture, amid fears many of the detained face execution.
Further signatories included exiled Iranian cinema figures such as Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Goldshifteh Farahani, Sepideh Farsi and Shirin Neshat; filmmakers such as Tarek Saleh, Nadav Lapid, Claire Simon, Lawrence Bender, Dominik Moll, Florian Zeller, Gabe Kingler and Mohanad Yaqubi as well as actress-directors Judith Godrèche and Ariane Labed.
A number of film festival professionals have also signed such as Venice Giornate degli Autori head Gaia Furrer and Marrakech International Film Festival Artistic Director Remi Bonhomme.
The statement continued that the signatories considered silence to be an act of complicity with the Iranian government’s violence.
“No political power has the right to massacre its own people in order to preserve itself or to silence the truth We call upon independent international institutions, film festivals, cultural and artistic institutions and the global community of filmmakers and artist to publicly and concretely condemn these crimes, to reassess and reconsider their relationships with official institutions of the Islamic Republic, and to support the struggle of the people of Iran for freedom, human dignity, and all inherent and inalienable human rights,” they said.;
“This statement is written in solidarity with the families of those killed, political prisoners, and the people from Tehran to Kurdistan, Baluchestan, and Azerbaijan …. who, despite brutal repression, continue to stand in the streets in defence of a future free from oppression and discrimination, and for a humane life without violence.”
The recent wave of protests began in late December when merchants in Tehran shut their shops in response to a currency crash, which added to an already difficult economic situation for most Iranians not working for the regime.
There are the biggest protests since the 2022 Woman Life Freedom demonstrations and are viewed as being different from past popular uprisings because they have encompassed all parts of society.