Director Saeed Roustayi (pictured) and producer Javad Norouzbeigi were at the Cannes film festival last year to show their film “Leila’s Brothers”: a film which explores the life of an Iranian family struggling against the economic disruptions caused by international sanctions on Iran for its nuclear weapons programme.
The film contains scenes of Iranian security forces beating demonstrators. It succeeded in winning two awards at the festival.
On Tuesday an Iranian “Revolutionary court” sentenced the two men to six months in prison for the crime of “creating propaganda against the system.”
A judge however ruled that as long as the men do not commit any more offences, they will only have to serve 10 days in prison. Both Roustayi and Norouzbeigi will be banned from making films or speaking to anyone in the film industry for the next 6 months.
The sentence has drawn widespread condemnation from both local NGOs and western countries.