Tehran, Iran

Iran's acclaimed filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof announced that he had fled from his country to Europe after he was given a prison sentence by a court on national security charges.

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In an Instagram post, Rasoulof criticised the Iranian government and called it a tyrannical and oppressive regime. He also shared a video which showed him crossing the mountainous border of the country.

“If geographical Iran suffers beneath the boots of your religious tyranny, cultural Iran is alive in the common minds of millions of Iranians who were forced to leave Iran due to your brutality and no power can impose its will on it. From today, I am a resident of cultural Iran,” Rasoulof said.

In another statement on May 12, Rasoulof stated that he would be escaping from Iran after his lawyers informed him about his prison sentence getting implemented on short notice.

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“I had to choose between prison and leaving Iran. With a heavy heart, I chose exile,” the filmmaker said in that statement, which was released by a spokesperson.

Why was Rasoulof given a prison sentence?

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The lawyers of Rasoulof last week, informed The Associated Press that the director was given an eight-year prison sentence, and orders had been given for the confiscation of his property by the Islamic Republic, as well as for flogging.

Rasoulof's attorney Babak Paknia said that the filmmaker was given a sentence for signing statements and making films.

A letter was co-signed by Rasoulof and other artists appealing to authorities to put down their weapons as protests continued over a building's collapse in 2022 which killed at least 29 people in the southwestern city of Abadan.

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His latest film "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" is set for a release and will premiere in Cannes on May 24.

"Knowing that the news of my new film would be revealed very soon, I knew that without a doubt, a new sentence would be added to these eight years," Rasoulof said.

"I didn’t have much time to make a decision. I had to choose between prison and leaving Iran. With a heavy heart, I chose exile. The Islamic Republic confiscated my passport in September 2017. Therefore, I had to leave Iran secretly," he added.

(With inputs from agencies)