Focus on Mohammad Rasoulof

Celebrate a career of integrity, courage and resistance.

In May 2024, Mohammad Rasoulof was sentenced to an eight-year prison term and a flogging, and had his property confiscated, for making a film that threatened national security. It would not be the first time the director had been fallen foul of Iranian officials for filmmaking: he had been imprisoned on three separate occasions. In a holding pattern before his prison term was to begin, Rasoulof was presented with a two-hour window to flee Iran, so, like a plot from a political thriller, he removed his tracking device and crossed the border on foot.

After a two-decade career making films in Iran that his fellow citizens are unlikely to see through official channels, Mohammad Rasoulof is now a filmmaker in exile.

This Spring, we follow Mohammad Rasoulof's career as his quiet resistance builds to an outspoken voice of protest – and as we become more cognisant of the oppressive forces that circle him, once veiled in poeticism, now emerging on screen as a present and omnipresent force to be navigated around and confronted head-on.

Join us in ACMI Cinemas as we celebrate works – many of which are rarely screened to Australian audiences – by the filmmaker who has spent a lifetime swimming against the tide and recognise the power of cinema to give voice to our truth, no matter the consequences.

– Reece Goodwin, Curator (Film & TV)