Iran International
Seven actors in Iran have boycotted their own film to be screened at the state-sponsored Fajr Film Festival in protest to the bloody crackdown on protesters.
“We avoided participation in Fajr Film Festival in the past few years but this year we are [even] ashamed our names [mentioned] in the festival. We would stop the film’s screening if we had any option to do so,” Baran Kowsari, Mani Haghighi, Hanieh Tavassoli, Ali Mosaffa, Fereshteh Hosseini, Nahal Dashti, and Amir-Hossein Fathi said in a statement published on Instagram.
Alluding to the name of the film they all played in, 'Why aren’t you crying?', Hanieh Tavassoli said on social media that in the past few months she has “been crying a lot” and that she did not have the mental strength to take part in the festival. “The film’s participation at any event is not and will not be my choice or decision.”
The film’s producer, Reza Mohaghegh, who has submitted the film to the festival, apparently without the consent of others, is the son-in-law of a high-ranking Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) official.
Director Kiumars Pourahmad whose ‘Case Is Open’ has also been submitted to the festival by its producer in an Instagram post said he withdraws from the festival.
Presumably referring to the IRGC’s extensive involvement in the film industry, Pourahmad protested that in the past few years the festival has turned from “Iran's film festival” into “a certain entity’s festival”.
Mohammad-Ali Talebi, Slovakia-based writer and film director told Iran International that IRGC-affiliated film companies such as Ofogh and Owj are spending huge sums to make films and driving most independent filmmakers out of the industry. Those who are withdrawing from the festival have taken a remarkable step because this means that they will no more have a chance of working in Iran, he said.
During this time, he explained, the festival meant nothing to him and even less so “in this bloody and grim year”. “What’s the point of celebrating, what’s the point of a festival, with all the sorrow [for the deaths of hundreds of protesters] that sits in our hearts?” he wrote.
The Fajr Film Festival has existed since 1982, highlighting Iranian cinema for 10 days, during a period known as the Ten Days of Dawn (Fajr). The first day of the Ten Days of Dawn marks the anniversary of the return of Ayatollah Khomeini to Iran from Paris and its last day, the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
The film festival and its sister theater festival have been losing their past aura and popularity over the years. Filmmakers and actors have been periodically boycotting the event, including in 2019, in protest to state violence against protesters.
Meanwhile, the head of the state broadcaster (IRIB), Payman Jebelli in a letter to President Ebrahim Raisi has demanded that Filimo, an online subscription video on-demand service similar to Netflix, be blocked on the internet.
Jebelli has cited the screening of Collapse series because one of its main actors, Hamid Farrokhnezhad, has recently left Iran, joined the opposition, and backed a revolution and the return of the former crown prince, Reza Pahlavi, to Iran.
Hamid Farrokhnejad, in a post on his Instagram compared Ali Khamenei with other dictators such as Francisco Franco, Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin and Benito Mussolini, saying he is “mentally ill” just like his “colleagues”. “Over time, all dictators have the illusion of imagining themselves as God, and they think they are absolutely right and eternal…but they are all mentally ill,” he said.
Following multiple reports by eyewitnesses after midnight, January 29, that an ammunition factory in Esfahan was hit by explosions and fire, Iran's defense ministry announced that small drones attacked the complex, and called the attack “unsuccessful.” It claimed all the drones were shot down, without saying if the attack came from inside the country or from outside.
Small drones have a very short flying time and if these were used against the ammunition factory, they must have been launched from a close distance. That does not necessarily eliminate the possibility of a foreign country being behind the attack, but it would certainly prove some people in Iran carried it out.
"The explosion took place in one of the munitions manufacturing centers of the Defense Ministry and, according to an announcement by the deputy Esfahan governor for security, there were no casualties," IRIB reported.
However, eyewitnesses report and videos show the actual explosions at the factory. Some Twitter users say that the Esfahan factory was manufacturing warheads for the Shahed kamikaze drone that Iran is supplying Russia for attacks in Ukraine.
The official, Mohammad Reza Jannesar, later told state television: "The damages are being investigated as well as the causes and elements that caused this explosion and .. will be announced later."
According to some reports air defenses of Iran's traditional army and the IRGC have been put on high alert.
There were also reports on social media of explosions and smoke in northwest of the capital Tehran. These reports have not been verified.
Also, a large blaze engulfed an industrial area near the city of Tabriz, northwest Iran. The government said the fire started at a refinery producing motor oil, but the cause of the devastating blaze remains unclear.
A social media post by a group of protesters in the southwestern Khuzestan province reports an explosion in Dezful. Another report says there were air raid sirens in Hamedan’s Nozheh airbase, but these remained unverified, similar to reports from Tehran and elesewhere.
Updated at 08:00 GMT on January 29
Imanabadi added in an interview with Rouydad24 website that poverty and unemployment will rise in the next Iranian year which starts on March 21. According to the former lawmaker the gap between socio-economic classes in Iran is also going to widen next year. All this, he said, indicates that "the future is going to be bleak" for Iranians.
Referring to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's promising remarks about low inflation and high economic growth, Imanabadi further charged that "Iran's economy has not grown and the statistics in this regard are wrong. Either President Ebrahim Raisi is being fed with wrong information or he is not interested in telling the truth."
He complained that "Those who worked hard for this country for 40 years are now out of a job and are replaced by a bunch of liars who run the country."
Speaking along the same lines, Hassan Khomeini, a grandson of Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, who was "advised" by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei not to run in 2021 presidential vote, also said in an interview with reformist news website Jamaran that the 1979 revolution brought about a sizeable middle class in Iran which has disappeared as a result of the current economic crisis in Iran.
Speaking about the increasing hardship today, Khomeini warned that poverty which is the outcome of oppression will eventually lead to a revolution.
Speaking about the ongoing protests in Iran, he said the government should not try to win or keep the power at any rate. He added: "The solution to the country's current situation is holding a dialogue with the people." Meanwhile he called for putting an end to violence in the confrontation with the protesters.
He added that when the people become angry those who are underprivileged will revolt and when it spreads, "there will be a revolution to change the society's leader, structure and ideology."
This is the clearest warning given to the Iranian government by a well-known cleric about a looming revolution in Iran.
Khomeini, addressed the reformist National Trust Party, told the party's leaders not to be shy about voicing their demands. "Stand on your feet and be bold," he said.
Regardless of Imanabadi’s and Khomeini's warnings about the dangers of increasing poverty, Labor Minister Solat Mortazavi claimed in an interview with Aftab News websitethat there is no “absolute poverty” in Iran. This comes while according to Aftab News, Mortazavi himself was a victim of absolute poverty when he used to live in Baba Heydar village in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiary Province before joining the government and becoming a rich man.
Mortazavi started his career as Basij commander in his village. Aftab News further charged that of course there is no absolute poverty in Mr. Mortazavi's family because he has given good jobs to his sons!
Aftab News further quoted Hamid Haj Esmaili, a researcher in the area of labor and poverty, as saying that "Eliminating absolute poverty is one of the responsibilities of the government. However, poverty has been constantly on the rise after the 1979 revolution. He added that some 30 million Iranians are depending on charity organizations for their daily meal which is a high figure for a country with 85 million people.
Esmaili added that some 67 million Iranians depend on the subsidy for fuel and in all, some 74 million receive some sort of cash handouts. He estimated that some 70 million Iranians suffer from absolute or relative poverty.