Imprisoned Iranian director Jafar Panahi declares hunger strike

Jailed Iranian film director Jafar Panahi has begun a hunger strike in Evin prison.

The filmmaker’s wife, Tahereh Saeidi, announced the protest action on her Instagram page. In a statement issued from his prison cell and sent to The Hollywood Reporter by the director’s publicist, who translated the message, Panahi recounted his recent imprisonment by Iran’s judiciary to complete a six-year prison sentence imposed over a decade ago, The Hollywood Reporter reports.

Panahi, a former Golden Bear winner whose social-issue films have drawn retribution from the Islamic Republic, recounted joining other Iranian filmmakers on July 20 to protest the arrest of two colleagues, only to find himself in Evin prison after being resentenced by a judge.

“This arrest was more like banditry and hostage-taking than the execution of a judicial sentence,” Panahi writes. The defiant director, whose most recent film, No Bears, premiered in Venice, adds he will refuse all food, drink and medicine until he is freed from prison.

“I will remain in this state until perhaps my lifeless body is freed from prison,” Panahi adds. His imprisonment has drawn the attention of international film festivals and activists as it shines a lot on the repression of the national cinema industry and continuing demonstrations around women’s rights.