Tehran, October 8 – Today, Iranian airport police stopped Iranian actress Fatemah Motamed-Aria and Iranian filmmaker Mojtaba Mirtahmasb (Director of Lady of Roses) from leaving Iran and coming to Los Angeles for an event celebrating Iranian cinema arranged by the Academy and UCLA.
Iranian police confiscated the passports of both artists and asked them to attend an interrogation at one of the centers for the Iranian Ministry of Information in Tehran.
Fatemah Motamed-Aria and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb have both been actively involved in supporting the Iranian Green Movement which has been protesting the Iranian presidential election results. Fatemah Motamed-Aria had been interrogated several times by Iranian police during the last few months.
The two were traveling to attend “Up Close and Personal: Iranian Filmmakers in Their Own Words”, a screening of recent of Iranian films arranged by the Academy of Motion Pictures, UCLA, and the UCLA Film & Television Archive. So far, there has been no reaction from the event organizers to the Iranian government’s decision to prevent the attendance of actress Fatemah Motamed-Aria and filmmaker Mojtaba Mirtahmasb.