Berlin Golden Bear Winner Mohammad Rasoulof Summoned to Serve Prison Sentence in Iran (Report)

The German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB), one of Germany’s most prestigious film schools, has sacked its British director, Ben Gibson, following an incident during the Berlin Film Festival in which he exposed his backside to a female student during a heated argument.

Leading European festivals, film academies and funders have called for the freedom of Iranian film director Mohammad Rasoulof.

By Tom Grater

A Jewish prisoner pretends to be Iranian to escape being shot and is then forced to teach Farsi, a language he doesn’t speak, to a Nazi superior inPersian Lessons, the new film from Ukrainian-born, Canada-based director Vadim Perelman (The House of Sand and Fog).

An impoverished laborer returns home one day to find that social services have taken his children, after the family’s increasingly dire circumstances push his wife to commit a desperate act. With a corrupt local administrator blocking the way to a fair hearing to get them back, the man decides to cross the country on foot in order to plead his case to the government in Belgrade.

Mohammad Rasoulof, the Iranian director who won the the top award at last month’s Berlin film festival, has been ordered to serve a one-year prison sentence over his movies, his lawyer has said.

TEHRAN, Iran -- An Iranian filmmaker who just won the Berlin Film Festival's Golden Bear has been summoned to serve a one-year prison sentence over his movies, his lawyer said Wednesday.

By Tom Grater

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An Iranian filmmaker who just won the Berlin Film Festival's Golden Bear has been summoned to serve a one-year prison sentence over his movies, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Overshadowed by a grisly, racially motivated shooting in western Germany and the growing pains of new festival leadership, this year’s Berlinale served to illuminate the market dynamics and global issues set to impact the international film and television industry in the run-up to Cannes — provided coronavirus stays away from the Croisette.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A drama film shot in secret to evade government censorship that highlights the moral dilemmas faced by those caught in the web of Iran’s capital punishment machine won the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear award on Saturday.

Iranian auteur Mohammad Rasoulof, whose sixth feature “There is no Evil” won the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear on Saturday, is one of his country’s most prominent directors even though none of his films have screened in Iran where they are banned. In 2011, the year he won two prizes at Cannes with his censorship-themed “Goodbye,” Rasoulof was sentenced with fellow director Jafar Panahi to six years in prison and a 20-year ban on filmmaking for alleged anti-regime propaganda.

Dissident Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof won the top prize at the Berlin film festival for There Is No Evil, a searingly critical work about the death penalty in Iran. Rasoulof, 48, is currently banned from leaving Iran and was unable to accept the Golden Bear in person.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A drama film shot in secret to evade government censorship that highlights the moral dilemmas faced by those caught in the web of Iran’s capital punishment machine won the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear award on Saturday.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A drama film shot in secret to evade government censorship that highlights the moral dilemmas faced by those caught in the web of Iran’s capital punishment machine won the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear award on Saturday.

Dissident Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof won the top prize at the Berlin film festival for There Is No Evil, a searingly critical work about the death penalty in Iran. Rasoulof, 48, is currently banned from leaving Iran and was unable to accept the Golden Bear in person.

Dissident Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof won the top prize at the Berlin film festival for There Is No Evil, a searingly critical work about the death penalty in Iran. Rasoulof, 48, is currently banned from leaving Iran and was unable to accept the Golden Bear in person.

Dissident Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof won the top prize at the Berlin film festival for There Is No Evil, a searingly critical work about the death penalty in Iran. Rasoulof, 48, is currently banned from leaving Iran and was unable to accept the Golden Bear in person.

FRANKFURT, Germany -- Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof's “There Is No Evil” won the Golden Bear prize Saturday for best picture at the Berlin Film Festival. Rasoulof wasn't there to accept the award due to a travel ban imposed on him by Iranian authorities.