One of the Oscar-nominated screenwriters of the Iranian drama “It Was Just an Accident” has been arrested in Tehran just weeks before the Academy Awards.
Representatives for the film on Feb. 1 said that Mehdi Mahmoudian was arrested on Jan. 31. No details on the charges against Mahmoudian were available. But his arrest came just days after Mahmoudian and 16 others signed a statement condemning Islamic Republic leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the regime's violent crackdown on demonstrators.
Two other signatories, Vida Rabbani and Abdullah Momeni, were also arrested.
Jafar Panahi, the prize-winning director of “It Was Just an Accident,” issued a statement on Feb. 1 decrying his co-writer's arrest.
“Mehdi Mahmoudian is not just a human-rights activist and a prisoner of conscience; he is a witness, a listener, and a rare moral presence — a presence whose absence is immediately felt, both inside prison walls and beyond them," Panahi said.
Panahi was also a signatory on the Jan. 28 statement. It reads in part: “The mass and systematic killing of citizens who bravely took to the streets to bring an end to an illegitimate regime constitutes an organized state crime against humanity.”
“It Was Just an Accident” is nominated for best screenplay and best international film at the March 15 Oscars. The film, made covertly in Iran, was France's nominee for best international film.
Panahi, one of the most acclaimed international filmmakers, has made films through various states of imprisonment, house arrest and travel ban.
“It Was Just an Accident," a revenge drama and the Palme d'Or-winner at last year's Cannes Film Festival, was inspired by Panahi's most recent stint in prison. It was there that he met Mahmoudian. Panahi called him “a pillar” to other prisoners.
The film was written by Panahi, Mahmoudian, Nader Saeiver and Shadhmer Rastin.
Last fall, Panahi was again sentenced to a year in prison and given a two-year ban on leaving Iran after being convicted on charges of “propaganda activities against the system.” Panahi, who has been traveling internationally with the film, has said he will return to Iran despite the sentence.
