The filmmaker of the Leila Brothers, Saeed Roustaee and I are still banned from working.
Javad Norouzbegi, the producer of the Leila Brothers film, told Etemad newspaper that last year at this time, the illegal version of the Leila Brothers film was released on the internet and caused widespread controversies. Now, a year has passed since that incident, and in the past year, the creators have experienced many events.
We do not have a place in the government sector, and the fact that social cinema has practically disappeared also implies a form of ban. It doesn’t mean a ban, but it implies a sense of being sidelined. However, we are still banned, and I have approached the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. In fact, I visited them just two weeks ago, and the result was that they told me to wait for further responses.
The film organization, as the responsible body for managing cinemas, did not take any effective steps for us, at least for me and Saeed Rustaee, the director of the film ‘Leila’s Brothers’. We went as far as the threshold of prison, and despite sending them all the necessary documents, they did not take any effective action. Eventually, our expectation was that the film organization would do something so that we would not end up in court. I would talk to them step by step and keep them informed. The film organization did not like to get involved. Of course, this is my prediction and it seemed to me that way.