Release Iranian filmmaker Navid Mihandoust now!
The International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR) continues to stand with our Iranian colleague Navid Mihandoust, who has been serving a three-and-a-half year prison sentence in Iran since August 2023. This last December, Navid was released from prison ever so briefly, before being sent back into detention with his chances for full release on parole now very much unclear.
A director, screenwriter and assistant director since 1999, Navid Mihandoust had to face unfounded charges in 2021 regarding a documentary about Iranian journalist and women's rights activisit Masih Alinejad's professional life — a documentary that remains unreleased to this day. Over the course of 2024, it became clear that Navid's current prison sentence stems from a false accusation that he was working on a film about Iran's anti-hijab movement among young women. Navid then refused to cooperate with Iran's intelligence services when asked to contact Alinejad under the pretence of making a new documentary about women's rights in Iran.
Speaking about Navid's character, his sister, Neda Mihandoust, has said, "He believes that as a filmmaker, he has a duty to society - to be the voice of the people and to highlight the problems within his society through his work. Despite having the chance to leave Iran, Navid chose to stay."
Navid's staunch refusal to support the state's plot against women's rights activism resulted in the execution of his prison sentence, in the notoriously harsh Evin Prison. The ICFR joins Navid's family in expressing deep concern for Navid's health and well-being in the current mentally torturous process of finalizing, or cancelling, his release on parole. We continue to stand with Navid, and call on the Iranian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Navid Mihandoust.
We encourage our colleagues across the global film industry to amplify our call, and keep up visibility for Navid's situation, for example by screening Café, the film he made in 2023 while anxiously awaiting whether or not his prison sentence would be executed, at your festivals and institutions. Feel free to contact ICFR directly for more information.
