We should ask: Why a prestigious International Film Festival and a great space for independent cinema has been taken over by a state which has committed numerous atrocities against its own citizens inside the country and in diaspora?
What an irony! A city that once was a home for beautiful and brave Canadian photojournalist Ziba-Zahra Kazemi, is now hosting the state who detained, tortured and brutally murdered her in the notorious Evin prison only because she was taking pictures of the family of the detained student protesters in front of the prison. Montreal is the city that has in the past 12 years been a base for struggle to bring justice to Ziba’s case against the Iranian regime!
On Thursday, August 27th under the leadership of Mr. Serge Losique, FFM is opening the 2015 festival with an Iranian movie, called Mohammed . A movie that has been fully financed by the Islamic theocratic regime with direct endorsement of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
As Mr. Lousique is endorsing the film Mohammed, this month all around the world Iranians are commemorating the 27th anniversary of the massacre of political prisoners. More than 5000 political prisoners were executed by direct order of Ayatollah Khomeini. How could we forget the vivid images of the 2009 uprising where thousands of protesters were brutally beaten, arrested, tortured, imprisoned and killed by the Iranian police with the direct order of the Supreme Leader who is a close friend of Mr. Majid Majidi, the Director of this film.
Artists have never been safe since the Islamic regime came to power; a regime that has zero tolerance for any opposition practices a harsh censorship plan. Genius filmmaker and playwright Bahram Beyzai has been denied access to any funds for his films, because he refused to obey the government’s code of filmmaking and censorship. The brilliant filmmaker Jafar Panahi has a 20-year-long ban on any activities related to cinema. And here we have Iranian Supreme leader’s favorite filmmaker and his film as the cultural ambassador for the Islamic Republic of Iran in Montreal!
It makes us wonder after 37 years of numerous reports about human rights abuse in Iran, how could one disregard the Iranian regime’s record of brutal suppression of any form of expression.
It is painful to witness this cultural brutality. We cannot and should not be silent.
As Martin Luther King Jr. said: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Shahrzad Arshadi & Stephan Kazemi
Montreal - August 23nd 2015
Shahrzad Arshadi, a Montréal-based multidisciplinary artist and human rights activist, community representative and Core Member at the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling, Concordia University.
Stephan Kazemi lives in Montreal, he has dedicated the last 12 years of his life to seek justice for his mother. He is working on creating a full retrospective collection of his mother's photographs to be taken around the world.
As long as vast majority of Iranians are ignorant , lazy and indifferent to these sort of things, nothing will change. The day that thousands of Iranian show up in montreal and other places and protest different issues then we will see a change.
MRX
The majority of Iranians are not lazy and indifferent and all that. It's just that the cronies of Islamic regime which are very small in numbers are very well funded and therefore very loud. Example is this Nuke deal between Obama and Khamenei . Just take a look at all the propaganda on this site alone in favor of it!!!!
It's not about being lazy, but the concept of "Rights" and freedom mean different things to Iranians than to those in the West, including us "Ghrab zadehs". Gone are the people who fought to preserve our culture and heritage from the savages who came after the pedophile prophet to "spread the word" - Too bad it was all for nothing.
پرویز صیاد: سینمای جمهوری اسلامی پایههای اخلاقی ندارد
Well Hamal if small group of people (NIAC and others) can dominate the conversation and politics about future of our beloved country as you indicated then it only confirms that vast majority is either silent, lazy and/ or indifferent. When was a last time there was a big demonstration against the regime out of side of Iran? how many exlie Iranians attend sport events, and movie festivals suchs as this when an entity from IRI shows up there (movies, sport teams ,etc) ? (Way too many!) , How many attended last world cup matches wearing IRI shirts and carrying its flag? list goes on and on. I am just stating what is obvious.
This is no surprise. The Islamic Republic spends billions of dollars on propaganda, misinformation and counterintelligence around the globe. And it has in its disposal a whole arsenal of West residing minions who are more than willing to prostitute themselves on any given occasion to advance IR's West and Jew hating, terrorsit agenda. Example(s): Leila Zand and Rostam Pourzal.
Dear AO, Zand and Pourzal are notable (and extreme) examples, but there are many more of the "soft opposition" and "pro-peace" individuals and entities who actively or passively support the IRI. If and when the nuke deal goes through, more and more of this ilk will come out of the woodwork (it has already started with the "69 prominent Iranian plumbers and HVAC people" support the nuke deal, blah, blah, blah).
Dear Amir--my experience with Iranians in general is that 85-95% of them support the IR --willingly or unwillingly, and through omission or affirmative acts. They willingly or unwillingly fall for IR's propaganda and perpetuate it, even when the IR f__ks them in the rear. Example: Haleh Esfandiari. I bet you when Jason Rezaiian is released, he will start justifyying his own detention and will call for "understanding" with the IR. People like us are in the minority my firend.
AO-ye-aziz, I think you raise valid points. I've often observed that if and when the IRI falls sometime in the future, it will be interesting to go through the files of its Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Intelligence to see who was on its payroll (similar things happened after Saddam and Qaddafi's regimes collapsed)...
Dear SamSam, did the TVIA "grand strategy" derive from the Tavileh?
One thing I don't understand is why in the world would anyone want to see a movie or read a book about a pedophile (i.e., bachehbaz) Arab called MooHamHead?
SamSam jaan, I love it :-)
Perhaps, we can get the TVIA to replace the defunct airline TWA. The stewardesses will be famous as the ugliest in the business....