Nima Sharif
Amid rising tensions between Iran and the international community over this country’s nuclear ambitions and its involvement in Iraq, Iranian dissidents are making headways in Europe and the United States, distancing themselves from the ruling fanatic mullahs’ in Tehran.
This year’s debut of an Iranian born film maker, Marjane Satrapi, and her creative animation about a child girl growing up in Iran, at the Cannes Film Festival is one of such instances.
Even before the screening of the movie, the Iranian censor machine started screaming at the Festival organizers and the French government for allowing this movie to enter the competition.
A state-run film association in Iran, Farabi Foundation, sent a letter of complaint to the French Embassy in Tehran. "Persepolis presents an unrealistic face of the achievements and results of the ‘glorious Islamic Revolution’ in some of its parts," the letter said.
Why so weak and fragile? What does a movie screened in a film festival in France have to do with Iranian government?
Let us remember that earlier this year Iran harshly reacted to screening of another movie called “300.â€Â
This is a definite sign of loosing control under international pressures or else what harm could come from a little criticism which is really what this movie is not about.
Apparently Persepolis is a runner-up at the film festival for the first prize this Sunday, despite of Iranian mullahs’ desires.
