Iranian directors Jafar Panahi (It Was Just an Accident) and Mohammad Rasoulof (The Seed of the Sacred Fig) have signed an open letter calling for an end to the war between Iran and Israel and for the Iranian regime to shut down its nuclear program.
Palme d’Or winner Panahi and the Oscar-nominated Rasoulof added their signatures to the op-ed published Wednesday in French newspaper Le Monde. Other prominent Iranian signatures included Nobel Peace Prize laureates Narges Mohammadi and Shirin Ebadi and human rights activists Sedigheh Vasmaghi, Shahnaz Akmali and Abdolfattah Soltani.
“We demand the immediate halt of uranium enrichment by the Islamic Republic, the cessation of military hostilities, an end to attacks on vital infrastructure in both Iran and Israel, and the stopping of massacres of civilians in both countries,” the open letter reads.
Iran’s enrichment of uranium has for decades been a cause of tension with the West and Israel. Israel justified its attacks on Iran last Friday, which sparked the current conflict, arguing Iran was close to building an atomic bomb, something Tehran denies.
“We believe that continuing uranium enrichment and the devastating war between the Islamic Republic and the Israeli regime neither serves the Iranian people nor humanity at large,” the Le Monde letter continues. “Uranium enrichment is in no way in the interest of the Iranian people. They must not be sacrificed for the nuclear or geopolitical ambitions of an authoritarian regime,” they said.
The signatories also called on Iran’s supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to step down. “The current leaders of the Islamic Republic lack the capacity to resolve Iran’s domestic crises or its external tensions. The only credible path to preserve this country and its people is for current authorities to step down.”
In a post on his Instagram account, Panahi said he has been stranded in Australia since the invasion. The director was visiting the Sydney Film Festival when the conflict started. “Since that day, I have been looking for a way to come back home [to] my family and especially my mother,” Panahi wrote on his Instagram post, according to the Farsi to English translation.
“This situation is deeply painful and deadly for me; not only because of the inevitable distance from home, but because of the feeling of incapability to face the suffering of the people who are sacrificed every day in the heart of this war. When the fate of a nation comes hostage to high-flying and power seekers, what is left for us is nothing but anger, grief, and the heavy responsibility of telling the truth to future generations.”
Panahi returned to Iran last month after winning the Palme d’Or for It Was Just an Accident. He has been able to travel freely since 2023, when Iran’s Supreme Court overturned an earlier travel ban. Rasoulof, who received an Oscar nomination for The Seed of the Sacred Fig, fled Iran last year and currently lives in Germany.
The Israel-Iran conflict continues unabated, with Israeli media reports that Iran fired dozens of 30 ballistic missiles at Israel on Thursday morning.
U.S. President Donald Trump has called for Iran’s “unconditional surrender,” but, so far, has not said whether the U.S. military will join Israel’s ongoing attacks.
