The Iran Public Culture Council (IPCC) has ruled the Iranian House of Cinema (IHC) is illegal, the Persian service of FNA reported on Wednesday. The decision was made on Tuesday during an IPCC meeting, which was held to settle a lawsuit filed against the organization by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance early December.
IPCC is composed of 29 members including the culture ministry, representatives of the Interior Ministry, the Intelligence Ministry, and the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization.
No representative from the IHC was invited to the meeting.
The members were briefed by Deputy Culture Minister Javad Shamaqdari about the activities of IHC at the meeting, Mansur Vaezi told FNA.
“Finally, due to the (Shamaqdaro’s) report, IPCC ruled the Iranian House of Cinema is illegal,” he added.
The IHC announced in a statement on Monday that it won’t collaborate with the Culture Ministry in organizing the Fajr International Film Festival, if the legal issues raised by the ministry are not settled.
Some semi official news websites deemed the statement a call for boycotting the festival, which is considered as Iran’s most important cinematic event.
The IHC, which is the Iranian cineastes’ guild, has been criticized by certain Iranian officials over the past few years for its independent stands on various issues.
In September, it was criticized for the issuance of a statement over the arrest of six Iranian documentary filmmakers, who have been accused of “collaboration with the BBC Persian service” in Iran.
Afterward, the minister of culture and Islamic guidance questioned the legitimacy of the IHC.
He said that the IHC had refused to inform the IPCC about some amendments made to its charter.
“Consequently, the guild faces a serious question about its legitimacy,” Mohammad Hosseini said.
Subsequently, Deputy Culture Minister Shamaqdari was assigned to file a lawsuit against the IHC.
“The official attitude toward the IHC was previously thought to be spontaneous, but today, it seems to be organized,” IHC Managing Director Mohammad-Mehdi Asgarpur said in October.
“Certain people are seeking to denigrate the Iranian cinema family and it seems that they are doing it on purpose,” he sighed.
Source : Payvand