Nuri Bilge Ceylan Responds to Backlash Over Attending Government-Run Iranian Film Festival: This ‘Should Not Be Interpreted as Support’ for Regime

Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan has responded to criticism regarding his participation in Iran‘s government-run Fajr Film Festival, saying that it should not be considered a show of support for the Iranian regime.

Bilge Ceylan, winner of the Cannes Palme d’Or in 2014 for “Winter Sleep” among many other accolades, came under fire earlier this week from the Iranian Independent Filmmakers Association (IIFMA) which, in an open letter, asked the prominent director to reconsider his participation in the fest in Iran’s southwestern city of Shiraz. Celyan is set to preside over the festival’s jury.

IIFMA — which is headed by Dubai-based dissident Iranian producer Kaveh Farnam — claimed Bilge Ceylan’s participation “effectively strengthens the images the government seeks to present of the country’s cultural situation — images that do not align with the actual experiences of those facing censorship, repression and constraint.”

The IIFMA open letter noted that recently Iranian security forces have killed hundreds of dissident protesters in various crackdowns, most notably during the nationwide “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement in 2022-2023.

“After the widespread suppression of public protests during the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement, the Islamic Republic has tried to normalize everything by holding state-organized events and ceremonies,” IIFMA went on to point out. “Among these, the Fajr Film Festival has been one of the most important showcases for this effort, a showcase that today holds little significance for a large portion of the Iranian artistic community.”

Bilge Ceylan — whose works besides “Winter Kills” also comprise “Three Monkeys” (2008), “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” (2011), “The Wild Pear Tree” (2018) and, more recently, “About Dry Grasses” (2023) – in a statement countered that “boycotting a festival can of course be understood as a form of resistance, yet depriving the people who live there of the films to be shown or of encounters of this kind, for any reason, feels like punishing them, and that does not seem right to me.”

Below is Bilge Ceylan’s full statement to Variety on the controversy.

“The Fajr Film Festival has been around for at least 40 years. Like many filmmakers, I have come here many times. I met Angelopoulos here, and I received an award from Béla Tarr’s jury here. Just a few months ago, I also gave a masterclass in Tehran, where I realized how valuable such encounters are for young filmmakers and film students living in Iran. I witnessed an extraordinary spark in the youth —something I have rarely seen elsewhere. Iran is a dynamic society, and it has a remarkable cinema from which I have learned a great deal. Filmmakers living in Iran — who, no matter how difficult and complicated their circumstances may be, continue trying to make films and searching for a way forward— need hope and gatherings like these even more than others. Boycotting a festival can of course be understood as a form of resistance, yet depriving the people who live there of the films to be shown or of encounters of this kind, for any reason, feels like punishing them, and that does not seem right to me. Every festival is shaped by complex political dynamics. In today’s world, there is almost no festival that exists without considerable amount of state support. But rejecting participation for political reasons feels to me like sacrificing art to politics. If we are to make festivals — and the art lovers who live there — bear the sins of governments, then very few festivals in the world would remain exempt from boycotts. Festival participation, in my view, should not be interpreted as support for governments, but a way of crossing the boundaries political regimes create between peoples and of affirming culture and art as something that stands above politics.”

All the best,

Nuri Bilge Ceylan