Iranian director Ali Ahmadzadeh, who won Locarno’s Golden Leopard for his clandestinely shot film Critical Zone in 2023 , says he is living in fear of imminent imprisonment after a group of 50 armed men broke into his home this week while he was shooting a new film.
Ahmadzadeh said the men went on to “steal” his phone; computers; a hard disk holding his past movies; awards, including his Golden Leopard, and all his shooting equipment, which was being rented.
“They also took the paintings in my house, all my papers, all my pictures, everything, my passport, ID cards, bank accounts – my whole my life. It’s a big attack on Iranian independent cinema,” he said in an email which has been made available to Deadline.
More worryingly, for the director, one of the people conducting the raid issued a summons at gunpoint ordering him to attend an appointment at the Ministry of Information, which he fears is the first step to him being jailed.
Cannes Palme d’Or winner Jafar Panahi, who has also done jail time in Iran for standing up for cinematic freedom of expression, posted footage of Ahmadzadeh’s ransacked home, calling the raid an act of “government terrorism”.
“What happened to Ali Ahmadzadeh was not an armed robbery, it was a psychological terror. It was an attack aimed at crushing will, destroying hope, breaking the camera. But they don’t understand that no government can stop the dream with guns and fear.”
Panahi said the raid was at odds with the government’s recent overtures to Iran’s cinema community and suggestions it wanted to take a more open stance.
“This is the same government whose president in front of the camera falsely breathes “talk to opposition” and with a Minister of Guidance who dreams of returning exiled artists. Will they be ‘greeted’ by government kidnappers as soon as they enter the country? Or must they first swear that they will not do anything, say anything, feel anything.”
Panahi said the raid marked a decisive moment for Iran’s cinema community.
“If we remain silent today, tomorrow it will be the turn of every Iranian filmmaker, even those who make movies with licenses,” he wrote.
Ahmadzadeh has previously found himself in the crosshairs of Iran’s hardline authorities for Critical Zone, which he shot in secret without permits and with a cast of non-professional actors.
The Iranian and German co-production follows a drug dealer as he navigates Tehran’s underworld over the course one night.
Following the announcement that the had been selected for Locarno in 2023, Ahmadzadeh came under intense pressure from the Iranian authorities to withdraw the film, and was stopped from leaving Iran to attend the festival.
