The 75th Cannes Film Festival - Photocall for the film "Leila's Brothers" in competition - Cannes, France, May 26, 2022. The Iranian Cinema Directors Association said in an Instagram post that it was “the strangest judiciary sentence in the history of Iranian cinema”. It said the movie, "Leila's Brothers", had been approved by the government and the Iranian government itself had participated at the Cannes festival for years. “Such a strange sentence is a futile attempt to humiliate this young and intelligent filmmaker of Iranian cinema,” the association said. Several independent filmmakers said they saw the sentence as a diversion from the upcoming anniversary of the Sept. 16, 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini.

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Persons: Saeed Roustayi, Stephane Mahe, Roustayi, Javad Noruzbegi, Mahsa, Mahnaz Mohammadi, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Scorsese, Frances Kerry Organizations: Cannes, Iranian Cinema, Reuters, Etemad, Thomson Locations: France, Iranian