Just days after touring the San Francisco locations of his favorite film “Vertigo,” master director Jafar Panahi was sentenced to a year in prison in absentia by a court in his home country of Iran.
Panahi’s lawyer, Mostafa Nili, told French news service Agence France-Presse on Monday, Dec. 1, that the filmmaker has been accused of engaging in “propaganda activities” against the state. Presumably, the sentence stems from the success of his current film, “It Was Just an Accident,” which is drawing Oscar buzz for depicting the personal and cultural damage caused by Iran’s theocratic regime.
Nili said he plans to appeal the sentence.
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On the day the sentence was made public, Panahi was in New York, where his film won three prizes at the prestigious Gotham Awards — international feature, director and original screenplay…