Acclaimed director Martin Scorsese is urging people to sign an online petition calling for justice for Iranian filmmakers Saeed Roustayi and Javad Noruzbeygi, both of whom have been sentenced to jail terms for screening their film, Leila's Brothers at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.
The petition, initiated by Scorsese's daughter, Francesca, had over 8,000 signatures as of August 17, more than half of which came after Martin Scorsese posted his appeal on Instagram.
"Please sign this petition to bring justice to Saeed Roustayi & Javad Noruzbeygi," the Oscar-winning director said in the post.
Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Court said on August 15 that it had sentenced Roustayi, the director of Leila's Brothers, and Noruzbeygi, one of its producers, to six months of jail time with the pair to serve about nine days of that, after which the remainder will be suspended for five years.
The ruling also stipulates that during the suspended sentence term, the two are prohibited from engaging with film activists and are required to undertake a filmmaking course at the Sound and Vision Academy in the religious Iranian city of Qom.
"We now have less than 20 days to help garner enough attention to appeal their sentence. Please sign and share this petition seeking justice for Roustayi and Noruzbeygi, so they can continue to be a force of good in the world," the petition, launched on August 16, said.
"Their voices needs to be heard," it added.
The organizers of the Cannes Film Festival have already called the court ruling "a serious violation of free speech."
The actions against Roustayi and Norozbeygi are part of a broader pattern of governmental pressure on artists in Iran. Notably, filmmaker Jafar Panahi previously faced a filmmaking ban and a six-year prison term.
Before its release last summer, Iran's Cinema Organization at the Ministry of Islamic Guidance banned the film about the tribulations of a woman trying to keep her family solvent amid corruption and the effects of international sanctions, saying the producer and director "violated and disobeyed regulations."
The ban came after the critically acclaimed film won the FIPRESCI Prize from international critics at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. It was also nominated for the Palme d'Or award for best film.
While accepting the FIPRESCI award, Roustayi said it was made in honor of the grieving people of Abadan after the deadly collapse of a tower building in the southwestern Iranian city killed 43 people. The collapse of the partially finished 10-story Metropol building sparked angry protests in solidarity with the families of the dead.
Roustayi's speech angered authorities who quickly moved to prevent the film from screening in Iran.
Such acts of civil disobedience have increased in Iran since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the morality police last September for an alleged dress-code offense.
While the protests appear to be waning, resistance to the hijab, or mandatory head scarf for women, is likely to increase, analysts say, as it is seen now as a symbol of the state's repression of women and the deadly crackdown on society.
Several Iranian cinematographers and prominent public figures have also been summoned by the police or arrested, including director Hamid Porazari.
Other celebrities, including prominent Iranian actresses Afsaneh Bayegan, Fatemeh Motamed-Arya, Katayon Riahi, and Pantea Bahram, have been interrogated and faced legal action after they made public appearances without wearing the mandatory hijab to show support for the protesters.