Reza Alaei, a 43-year-old Kurdish filmmaker whose 2021 film "Polluted Lands" was screened at the Cannes International Film Festival, has been detained at an undisclosed location since his arrest by Iranian security forces on September 11, 2024, in Baneh, northwestern Iran.

According to the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, security forces raided his family home in Baneh, arresting him at the door of his residence.

A source told Hengaw that the security forces arrested the director without presenting an arrest warrant and transferred him to an undisclosed location.