Dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi is reported to have left Iran for the primary time in 14 years following the lifting of a travel ban imposed on him in 2009.
Panahi’s spouse Tahereh Saeedi posted an image on Instagram on Tuesday evening exhibiting her arriving together with her husband at an undisclosed airport.
It was cryptically captioned: “After 14 years, Jafar’s ban was cancelled and finally we are going to travel together for a few days…”
Panahi is seen waving and pushing a baggage trolley laden with three giant suitcases.
There isn’t any info on the place the image was taken though there have been ideas on social media that the backdrop is a French airport.
The The White Balloon, The Circle and Taxi director has spent most of his filmmaking profession within the crosshairs of Iran’s authoritarian Islamic Republic authorities.
The director has not been ready to depart Iran since 2009 after stoking its ire for attending the funeral of a pupil shot useless within the Green Revolution and his later try to shoot a characteristic set towards the backdrop of the rebellion.
In 2010, he was given a six-year suspended jail sentence in addition to a 20-year filmmaking and travel ban In December 2010, for “making propaganda against the system”.
The reported journey comes two months after Panahi was launched from Tehran’s infamous Evin jail following his arrest in July alongside Mohammad Rasoulof and filmmaker Mostafa Al-Ahmad amid a authorities crackdown on the nation’s artists and freedom of expression.
Deadline has reached out to sources for affirmation of the report that Panahi has been allowed to travel internationally.
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