Ali Nassirian, a well-known Iranian film and theater actor, announced his withdrawal from the Fajr State Film Festival on Sunday.
In a letter posted online, Nassirian wrote to the festival secretariat, “I am excused from participating due to physical problems, age and mental complications that happened to me recently, VOA Persian Service reported.
In 1982, Iran established the Fajr State Film Festival, which will be held every February, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported.
Nassirian also asked the organizers to remove his name from “any event of this festival”.
In recent days, a number of other Iranian actors pulled out of the government event in support of those protesting the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after being arrested for allegedly wearing her headscarf. inappropriate way.
At least 520 protesters have been killed and 19,400 others arrested in Iran since the protests began, following Amini’s death on September 16, 2022.
Iran has also handed down a number of death sentences and executed at least four people.
Mani Haghighi wrote in a post this week that he, Haniye Tousli, Farshte Hosseini, Baran Kothari, Nahal Dashti and Amir Hossein Fathi, the actors of the film “Why Don’t You Cry”, will not be attending the film festival.
Haghighi said the film’s inclusion in the government event was out of their control, and he said the actors were ashamed to see their names as part of the festival.
Since the protests, many other artists have taken a stand against the government.
Majid Emami, the secretary of the Public Culture Council of Iran, reacted to the boycott of the Fajr festival by a group of artists and called it “class-specific performance and spatial creations, adding that “the festival of this year’s Fajr movie will be more popular than previous years.
The festival is held around the anniversary of the revolution.
