Noy Thrupkaew explores the debate over staying or going amongst dissident filmmakers in Iran:
Bahman Ghobadi chose exile — although “chose” scarcely seems like the appropriate word. The Iranian authorities had suggested that the Kurdish-Iranian filmmaker leave the country numerous times over the years, and turned up the pressure two days before the June 2009 presidential elections that sparked the Green Revolution protest of the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Ghobadi’s crimes? Making films in Kurdish, granting interviews to foreign media, and making movies about sensitive matters, the director told Filmmaker magazine. But according to the doyen of Iranian cinema, Abbas Kiarostami, Ghobadi’s real sin was leaving Iran — and making a film that encouraged others to leave as well.
