“Writing on the City” is a film that was directed by award-winning Kurdish minority and Sunni Muslim Keywan Karimi, and has seen air time at film festivals in France, Spain and Switzerland.
The film, a documentary, was made in 2013, by then 30-year-old filmmaker Karimi who wanted to document and film “what was been written on the walls of Tehran” and to explore the nature of graffiti in the capital in relation to political and social events. Never did he expect to be arrested and sentenced to years in prison.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards saw Karimi spend 15 days in solitary confinement in 2013. Accused of filming and making “propaganda against the regime” and “insulting religious values” Karimi was sentenced to six years in prison in 2015.
Amongst the initial claims, the young filmmaker told AFP this week that further “ridiculous” charges have been added, including making pornography, extramarital affairs and drinking alcohol.
An international public outcry, which saw acclaimed Iranian film directors Jafar Panahi and Mohsen Makhmalbaf rally, successfully resulted in five years of Karimi’s prison sentence suspended. However, 223 lashes remained, which recently, prison officials have demanded be carried out.
“I am not a political activist,” Karimi told AFP during a telephone interview. “I am not being sent to prison because I oppose the regime but because I am a filmmaker.”
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said in 2015 that film scenes relating to protests after the 2009 presidential elections “irked” authorities.
At the time, the filmmaker’s sentencing hit European and Western media, with a demand for clemency then:
L’« histoire kafkaïenne » d’un cinéaste iranien condamné à six ans de prison et 223 coups… https://t.co/qFyUByZcBN pic.twitter.com/4QXxACQWXU
— Le Monde (@lemondefr) October 25, 2015
Karimi’s lawyer, Amir Raeesian also noted that the sentence imposed of 6 years was against the law, and contravenes Article 134 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code.
“All of Mr. Karimi’s films were made within the law. But the indictment says his film ‘Writing on the City’ had scenes that insulted the sacred. But there are no such scenes. The film is only about graffiti writing on Tehran’s walls,” Raeesian told the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
Since authorities have called for the 223 lashes to be upheld, over “30 major European film organizations” have appealed for the filmmaker’s clemency.
Sources: Iran Human Rights, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, Civita Film Commission, AFP via Yahoo.
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