Mohammad Rasoulof

Mohammad Rasoulof, born 1973 in Iran, is an independent filmmaker. He studied sociology at Shiraz University, and film editing in Tehran.

His first feature-length film, THE TWILIGHT, was released in 2002 and won the Best Film Award at the International Film Festival in Tehran. In 2010, Rasoulof was arrested on set and accused of filming without a permit. He was sentenced to six years in prison, later reduced to one year, however, including a ban on making films. Since then, Rasoulof makes his films clandestinely. The film GOODBYE premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section and won the prize for directing. After winning the Un Certain Regard competition in Cannes with A MAN OF INTEGRITY (2017), he was arrested again. His next movie as a director, THERE IS NO EVIL (2020), won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

Following the announcement that his film THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG was selected in the main competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, the cast and crew were interrogated by Iranian authorities, banned from leaving the country, and pressured to convince Rasoulof to withdraw the film from the festival line-up. On 8 May 2024, Rasoulof's lawyer announced that the director had been sentenced to eight years in prison. Shortly after, Rasoulof, and some crew members, managed to flee from Iran.