Mojgan Khaleghi, director of the banned film "Cabaret" starring Fatemeh Motamed-Aria, was arrested
The Sharq newspaper website has reported the arrest of Mojgan Khaleghi, a cinema and theater director and producer of the film "Cabaret," who was confronted by security forces in August this year and detained in the middle of filming.
Shargh reported on Saturday, November 10, that Ms. Khaleghi, who had gone to the Isfahan Prosecutor's Office to retrieve her confiscated belongings, had been arrested.
According to this report, some media outlets have attributed his arrest to the filing of a case on charges of "acting against national security."
On August 9, the deputy director of evaluation and supervision of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage's Cinema Organization said that "relevant agencies" had dealt with the production of an underground film called "Cabaret."
The official cited the lack of a production license from the Ministry of Cultural Guidance as the reason for this action, and implied that the actors in the film were not required to wear the hijab.
Some media outlets close to the Islamic Republic cited the presence of Kaveh Farnam, a Europe-based producer and Mohammad Rasoulof's collaborator on the film "There Is No Evil," as one of the reasons for the film's ban.
Mr. Farnam and the director of "Cabaret" denied this news, and Mojgan Khaleghi told Shargh newspaper on August 12 that the Ministry of Cultural Affairs was in the process of producing the film and that the producers had begun filming in "coordination" with the Cinema Organization.
He confirmed the presence of Fatemeh Motamed-Aria as an actress in the film, which had been unofficially announced earlier, and said that Ali Mosaffa was another actor in "Cabaret" and that Hossein Alizadeh, a renowned composer, was supposed to compose music for the film.
Regarding the seizure of the film and filming equipment, Mojgan Khaleghi said that "30 to 40 people went to the filming location in an unconventional manner."
He added: "At the same time, these people went to other places, including the editor's office, Ms. Motamed Aria's house, and my house, and took all the belongings with them."
According to the director, "There has never been a precedent in the history of Iranian cinema where they took away a camera, and usually they take away the hard drive, but this time they took the camera with them. The filming equipment was worth nearly 15 billion tomans, but now the equipment is in their hands, and every day I have to give back to those from whom I rented the equipment and pay the rent. More importantly, the health of this expensive equipment is also at risk."
A week after Ms. Khaleghi's statements, the Cinema Production Supervision Office of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage denied the organization's approval of the film's production, and quoted Bahman Habashi, the director general of the office, as saying that "the female actors' performance without hijab" was one of the "violations" of the film's creators.
Following the widespread protests that began in September 2022 with the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the Ershad patrol, women's protest and civil struggle against the mandatory hijab also had supporters among artists, including Fatemeh Motamed-Aria, who protested the suppression of the protesters from the very beginning.
Ms. Motamed Aria is among the female actresses in Iranian cinema who abandoned the mandatory hijab after nationwide protests last year. The Ministry of Cultural Affairs announced last week that these female actresses are no longer allowed to work due to their failure to comply with the laws regarding the mandatory hijab.
Source: Radio Jawan
