Film-maker Jafar Panahi arrested in Iran

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/mar/02/jafar-panahi-arrested-in-iran

The Crimson Gold director, who is a vocal supporter of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, has reportedly been detained by security forces

The Iranian director Jafar Panahi has reportedly been detained by security forces in his homeland. Panahi, 49, is a vocal supporter of the opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and has long been regarded as a pariah by the Iranian establishment. He is currently believed to be being held at an undisclosed location.

Mousavi's website Kaleme quotes Panahi's son, who claims that the film-maker was arrested at his home on Monday night, together with his wife, daughter and 15 dinner guests. Security forces allegedly searched the house and seized belongings. The official Iranian media is not reporting the story.

Panahi is known as one of the leading lights of modern Iranian cinema. He won the Camera d'Or award at the Cannes film festival in 1995 for his debut feature The White Balloon and took the Golden Lion prize at Venice for his 2000 drama The Circle. His other films include Crimson Gold and Offside.

Panahi's productions are largely funded by European money as a means of bypassing what he sees as government interference. His films are banned in Iran, where the authorities regard them as implicitly critical of the current regime. "[The authorities] think that anyone who is independent or not following their views is a spy of the west," Panahi told the Guardian at the time of Crimson Gold's release. "Paid by the west. Spreading western propaganda."

The film-maker is known to have criticised the outcome of last year's disputed presidential elections, which returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power and sparked opposition protests across the country. Since then his activities appear to have been curtailed. Last month, organisers of the Berlin film festival claimed that a travel ban had prevented the director from attending the event.