Iranian writer Mohammad Rasoulof has spoken out about the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who was killed in a joint US and Israeli military strike on Saturday. In a social media post marking the first public comment by Iran’s leading director on Khamenei’s death, Rasoulof called him “the most hated figure in modern Iranian history.”
In an impassioned Instagram post on Sunday, Rasoulof, who fled to Germany in May 2024 after being imprisoned and flogged by Iranian authorities for his work on “The Sacred Fig,” which won the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, said in an impassioned Instagram post on Sunday that “death was an easy end” for Khamenei. He added that Khamenei, who died at the age of 86, represented “the darkest possible side of modern human existence, which is under the aegis of false religion and holiness.”
Khamenei, the Islamic Republic’s second leader, has ruled with an iron fist since taking power in 1989. He has recently become known for his crackdown on protests, leading to thousands of killings in January as public anger swells amid hardships from economic sanctions and rampant corruption.
According to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency and other sources, in addition to Hamanei, the US and Israeli airstrikes also killed Iran’s army chief of staff and defense minister.
Rasoulov is one of Iran’s most prominent directors, but his films are banned in his home country. In 2011, the year his censorship-themed film Goodbye won two awards at the Cannes Film Festival, he and fellow director Jafar Panahi were sentenced to six years in prison and banned from making films for 20 years on charges of anti-establishment propaganda. His sentence was later suspended and he was released on bail. In 2017, Iranian authorities confiscated Rasoulof’s passport when he returned from the Telluride Film Festival, where “The Honest Man,” a film about corruption and injustice in Iran, was screened.
Meanwhile, the United States and Israel escalated their attacks on Iran on Monday, with Iranian forces firing missiles and drones at Israel and neighboring Gulf states that host American military bases.
Hamanei’s death sparked several celebrations in Iran’s capital, Tehran, with fireworks and dancing in the streets on Saturday. However, protests have also taken place from supporters of Ayatollah Khamenei.
Regime change in Iran is seen as a complex issue due to the regime’s deep roots in the country, despite widespread opposition, and a political vacuum could develop in unpredictable ways.
