Mohammad Rasoulof, the celebrated Iranian filmmaker who had to endure a lot of trials and tribulations due to his opposition of the Iranian regime under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called him “the most hated figure in the contemporary history of Iran” following the supreme leader’s assassination in a joint U.S. and Israeli military operation on Sunday.
Iran’s state-run news agency had reported on Sunday that Khamenei and Chief of Staff of Iran’s armed forces, Abdolrahim Mousavi, had been the main targets of Operation Roaring Lion. Those killed in the airstrikes included seven members from the top brass of Iran’s security forces.
In an Instagram post, Rasoulof, known for his critically acclaimed films such as “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”, “There is no Evil” and “A Man of Integrity”, said death was the easy way out for Khamenei. The full translated statement is as follows:
“For the most hated figure in contemporary Iranian history, with a dark and heavy record of numerous crimes, for every page of which he had to be tried and punished many times before the Iranian people and the human conscience, death was a cheap end!
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“I wish he could have been captured alive… He embodied the darkest possible dimensions of contemporary human existence under the shelter of religion and fake holiness in a way that millions of Iranians from generations past to generations to come have paid and will pay for!
“In his shadow, who was falling from the abyss of pride, immersed in his mentally disturbed, sick and holy world, a corrupt and extensive structure of wealth and power was created. A structure that was tasked with industrialising death for the absurd ideals of this naked king!
“Unfortunately, it must be admitted that ‘Khameneism’ is a trend! The corrupt circle of this criminal sect is a combination of owners of illegitimate wealth and power who have devoured Iran’s capital and resources for decades and have organised their own immediate reproduction mechanism in the heart of the corrupt structure of the Islamic Republic!! New days now await us on the difficult path to freedom…”
Rasoulof’s upcoming work is a 39-min short film “Sense of Water”. It’s Rasoulof’s follow-up to the Cannes Special Jury Prize-winning feature “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”. He has been known for his strongly political films that rely on pure visual storytelling rather than resorting to preachiness to get the essence and messages of his films across.