Saeed Roustaee: Martin Scorsese backs director jailed in Iran for Cannes screening

Martin Scorsese has lent his support to an Iranian director who has been jailed for screening a film at the Cannes Film Festival without government permission.

Saeed Roustaee, who premiered Leila's Brothers at the French festival in 2022, was reportedly sentenced to six months in prison by an Iranian court.

Festival organisers said it was "a serious violation of free speech".

Scorsese shared a petition calling for "justice" for Roustaee and the film's producer Javad Noruzbegi.

According to Iranian media, the pair were convicted of "contributing to propaganda of the opposition against the Islamic system".

The film is about economic issues faced by a family in Tehran. It had already been banned in Iran after it "broke the rules by being entered at international film festivals without authorisation" and the director refused to "correct" it as requested by the culture ministry, the AFP news agency reported.

However, the film-makers will only serve one-twentieth of their jail sentence, about nine days, while the remainder "will be suspended over five years", according to the Etemad newspaper, which said they could appeal against the verdict.

During the suspension period, the defendants will be required to take a film-making course while "preserving national and ethical interests" and refrain from associating with other cinema professionals, the newspaper said.

The 34-year-old director is also not allowed to work for five years.

Leila's Brothers was in competition for the Palme d'Or, the top prize at Cannes, and won the event's International Federation of Film Critics (Fipresci) award.

Cannes organisers added in a statement that this ban "constitutes once again a serious violation of free speech for Iranian artists, film-makers, producers and technicians".

"The Cannes Festival expresses its support to all those who suffer violence and reprisals for creating and distributing their works. The Festival is their home," it said.