Iran threatens boycott of Venice Film Festival

Iran is threatening to boycott the Venice Film Festival this year, ostensibly over EU oil sanctions, but possibly as a means of censoring one of its own filmmakers.

In a statement published in the Tehran Times, Alireza Sajjadpur, a representative of Iran’s Minister of Culture, said, "Considering that the European Union has imposed the most inhumane and illegal sanctions against Iran, we are naturally considering a plan to boycott the festival this year."

The statement has been widely interpreted as a threat against Iranian filmmaker Kianoosh Ayari, whose The Paternal House was set to screen in the Horizons sidebar in Venice.

The film tells the story of Iranian women’s struggles inside male-dominated households. Iran has demanded he make cuts before it allows him a screening visa. Ayari has reportedly refused to censor the film and may be blocked from attending the festival.

The EU embargo on Iranian oil went into effect on Jan. 23, but Iran did not announce a boycott of the Berlin Festival in February, where jailed Iranian directors Jafar Panahi, Mohammad Rasoulof, and Mehdi Pourmoussa were honoured, or the Cannes festival in May, where director Abbas Kiorestami screened Someone in Love. 

Any Iranian boycott of the festival would mean that Ayari would not be able to travel to Venice.

But there is precedent for festivals to screen films smuggled out of Iran. Last year the Cannes festival played Panahi’s This is Not a Film, a documentary spirited out of the country at a time when the director was under house arrest in Iran.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Venice officials would not comment on the reports except to say that they have not received any official word of a possible Iranian boycott. The festival runs Aug. 29-Sept. 8.