The refugee Iranian director Mohammed Rassulof walked the red carpet in Cannes on Friday afternoon for the premiere of his new film. His film “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” is in competition at the film festival. Rassulof secretly left Iran a few days ago after being sentenced to several years in prison.
The French newspaper “Le Monde”, citing an interview with Rassulof, writes that he fled to Germany. His daughter is studying medicine there.
Rassulof told Screen International magazine that he was in the middle of undercover filming of “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” when he found out about the verdict. He appealed and was able to finish the film during this time. After filming ended, the appeal court confirmed the sentence.
“I knew then that I would have very little time before they would actually come and arrest me,” Rassulof said. “So I had two hours to decide whether I was going to stay and possibly go to prison or escape, and that’s what I did. In those two hours, I decided to leave all my electronic devices at home and go somewhere safe “I had to have it brought to the place before I crossed the border and left the country.”
