Noah Centineo Appeals to Global Film Festival Heads on Behalf of Embattled Iranian Filmmaker Saeed Roustaee
variety.comMatt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Actor Noah Centineo touched down at the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend to rally support for Saeed Roustaee, an Iranian filmmaker sentenced to prison by his government over the latter’s film “Leila’s Brothers.” Over Friday cocktails at festival headquarters, the TIFF Bell Lightbox, the “Black Adam” star appealed to top representatives from film festivals around the world on behalf of Roustaee, who was sentenced to six months in prison after screening his feature at the Cannes Film Festival without authorization from Iran’s culture ministry.
Furthermore, he would not amend the film after the ministry requested corrections. He was formally charged with “anti-regime propaganda activity” and will be banned from directing for five years. “I am here for a friend.
A friend who knows viscerally that freedom of expression is a gift and that it is not free, as much as it should be a basic human right,” Centineo told the group. “He knows it needs to be fought for and protected and I know it’s not every day that artists can come together to take a stand and protect one of their own in such a dire situation.” Centineo first met Roustaee when both served on the jury at Festival International du Film de Biarritz in June.
Additional jurors from that festival to show support for Roustaee include Martin and Franchesca Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola.
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