Iranian filmmakers hit out at Ahmadinejad

SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain — Several Iranian filmmakers Thursday used the San Sebastian film festival to condemn the Tehran regime and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at the UN General Assembly.

Protesters, including members of the festival jury, gathered inside the festival building behind a huge banner that read: "We do not want a nuclear bomb, we want peace and democracy" in Iran.

All wore green scarves, the colour of the opposition candidate in the June 12 elections, Mir Hossein Moussavi.

"Freedom in Iran! Peace in the world!" shouted Hana Makhamalbaf, an Iranian filmmaker and an organiser of the protest, prior to the showing of her film "Green Days."

Makhamalbaf, 21, is the daughter of director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, who is close to Moussavi.

Her sister Samira, 29, who is a member of the festival jury this year, also took part in the protest, as did Mohammad Rasoulof, whose film "The White Meadows," a veiled attack on the Tehran regime, was shown on Saturday.

Another Iranian filmmaker, Shahram Karimi, said he was "shocked" by Ahmadinejad's controversial speech to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday,

"This government is dangerous. For me, Ahmadinejad is not the Iranian president," he said.

In the UN speech, which triggered a walkout by a dozen delegations, the Iranian president accused Israel of "inhumane policies in Palestine" and of seeking to "establish a new form of slavery, and harm the reputation of other nations, even European nations and the US, to attain its racist ambitions."

"It's terrible, I can't believe it," another Iranian filmmaker, Bahman Ghobadi, said of the speech. "The government and the people are two separate things in Iran, we need a big change."

Iran was rocked by mass protests against Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election victory in June, and in the initial crackdown some 4,000 people, including top reformists, political activists, and journalists were arrested.

About 140 of them have been put on mass trials before a Tehran revolutionary court, which the opposition denounces as a "show trials."

"I'm very proud of what they did," Karimi said of the protesters.

The 57th edition of the San Sebastian film festival, the oldest and most prestigious event of its kind in the Spanish-speaking world, concludes on Saturday in the coastal city in northern Spain.

A total of 15 films are competing for top Golden Shell award this year. Link...