Iranian independent director, writer and producer Mohammad Rasoulof was born in Shiraz, Iran in 1972. While studying sociology at university, Rasoulof started his filmmaking career with documentaries and short films. His first film Gagooman (The Twilight, 2002) won Best Film at the Fajr Film Festival in Iran. Following the making of his second film, Jazireh Ahani (Iron Island, 2005), he faced some issues with censorship laws in Iran and as a result his opportunities to further produce and screen films were largely limited and banned. To this date, Mohammad Rasoulof has produced eight feature films none of which have been screened in Iran due to censorship, even though his films enjoy a wide audience abroad. Rasoulof’s cinema had mostly relied on allegorical narratives as a mean for expression, until 2010 when he decidedly opted for a more direct form of engagement. In March 2010, Rasoulof was arrested on set while directing a project together with Jafar Panahi. In the first trial following the arrest, he was sentenced to six years in prison, a sentence that was later reduced to one year. He was then released on bail. Mohammad Rasoulof has been awarded many accolades for his films. In 2011, he won Best Director in Un Certain Regard for his film Bé Omid é Didar (Goodbye, 2011) at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2013, he earned the FIPRESCI Prize from the International Federation of Film Critics at Un Certain Regard for Dast Neveshteha Nemisoozand (Manuscripts Don’t Burn, 2013). In 2017, he won the main prize in the Un Certain Regard section for Lerd (A Man of Integrity, 2017) at the Cannes Film Festival. Upon returning to Iran in September 2017, he was officially barred from leaving the country, a verdict which is still in effect. He was accused of ‘endangering national security’ and ‘spreading propaganda against the Islamic government.’ All these limitations did not stop Rasoulof from working. In the past years, he has worked as a producer and scriptwriter on the features the Hatchback Ghermez (The Red Hatchback) and Pesar-Madar (Son-Mother). In the beginning of 2020, Rasoulof also completed his work as a scriptwriter, director and producer on his second last feature Sheytan Vojud Nadar (There is No Evil) which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. On July 8, 2022, Mohammad Rasoulof was arrested after signing a petition criticising the government crackdown after protests over the deadly collapse of sub-standard buildings in the southwestern Iranian city of Abadan. On the basis of a prior prison sentence, he was imprisoned and released from the Evin prison in Teheran after seven months in February 2023. Shortly after his release, new investigation proceedings were opened because of the petition as well as several of his films. Barred from travel, Rasoulof participated remotely as a member of the Berlinale Jury 2021. In 2023, Rasoulof was invited to take part in the Cannes Film Festival as a jury member of the Un Certain Regard section but could not attend the festival due to his travel ban by Iran Iranian Authorities. After his release from prison, he worked on his new film “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”. In April 2024, the director was sentenced to eight years in prison as well as flogging, a fine and confiscation of his property. Following the announcement of the selection of his film The Seed of the Sacred Fig for the main competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, cast and crew were interrogated by Iranian authorities, banned from leaving the country, and pressured to convince Rasoulof to withdraw the film from the festival line-up. Shortly after, Rasoulof and some crew members managed to escape Iran to Europe, some of them after long and strenuous journeys in order to avoid prosecution by Iranian authorities.