Iranian director faces jail for film attacking graft

PARIS, Dec 22 (Agencies): It is not easy to lead a good and virtuous life in Iran if the film-maker Mohammad Rasoulof's latest film, "A Man of Integrity", is anything to go by.
Its downtrodden hero struggles to make an honest rial from his goldfish farm, caught in a nightmarish, distorting fish bowl of corruption at every turn.
The film, which won the prestigious Un Certain Regard prize at the Cannes film festival in May, is a damning indictment of how the "daily reality of graft" is sapping the Islamic Republic.
"Corruption has penetrated every layer of society," Rasoulof told AFP by Skype from his home in Tehran, where he is effectively under house arrest since his passport was confiscated when he returned from the Telluride film festival in the US in September.
The dark thriller tells the story of Reza, who refuses to pay a bribe for a loan that would save his business, and finds himself confronting a rotten array of officials and businessmen who run a small town in the north of the country.
"Corruption goes from the bottom of the social ladder right to the top of the pyramid of power," said Rasoulof, whose earlier acclaimed films "Manuscripts Don't Burn" and "Iron Island" were banned in his homeland.
"A Man of Integrity" is unlikely to see the light of day there either despite being praised by Variety and the Hollywood Reporter as a "compelling... tense, enraging drama".
Rasoulof, 34, already has a suspended 12-month prison sentence hanging over his head after he was arrested on set in 2010 with his friend, the "Taxi" director Jafar Panahi, who was subsequently banned from making films for 20 years.
Initially jailed for six years, Rasoulof's sentence was reduced on appeal.
This time he faces similar charges of "propaganda against the regime" and "endangering national security".
But the threat of prison did not stop Rasoulof squaring up to the uncomfortable truth he insists is undermining the country from within.
Meanwhile, Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency is reporting that police have detained 230 boys and girls at separate parties in the capital Tehran in which alcohol was involved.
The Friday report says Tehran police arrested 140 of the young partygoers in a garden on the outskirts of Tehran and 90 in the city's uptown while dancing and drinking alcohol Thursday night.
Drinking alcohol and mixed parties of unrelated men and women are illegal and considered a sin under Islamic law in Iran.
The report said some participants posted an invitation to others to join on Instagram and police arrested them.