Asghar Farhadi’s latest film, The Salesman, was nominated for an Oscar earlier this week as Iran’s submission for Best Foreign Language Film. Today, its star announced she will not be going to the ceremony: Taraneh Alidoosti said in a tweet she will boycott because of Donald Trump’s “racist” policies. It recently emerged that Trump was planning to sign an executive order preventing visas from being issued to people from seven predominantly Muslim countries, including Iran. Alidoosti tweeted:
In an interview via email with the New York Times, the actress elaborated on her stance: “I decided not to go even if I could, because it hurts me deeply to see ordinary people of my country being rejected for what might be their legal right to have access to their children abroad or to their school classes as students.” A press representative for the film told The A.V. Club that Farhadi had no comment. We’ve also reached out to the Academy as well and will update if we hear back. In The Salesman, Alidoosti plays performer in a production of Death Of A Salesman who is attacked in the new apartment she shares with her husband, a fellow actor.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Oscars aren’t the only film event currently grappling with the impending of Trump’s ban. The Miami Film Festival is scheduled to host Iraqi director Hussein Hassan for the North American premiere of his film The Dark Wind, and he reportedly has not yet received a visa. “It’s clear that the U.S. consulate in Erbil is already acting as if [the executive order] is going to happen and not proceeding as normal or customary [in processing Hassan’s visa],” festival director Jaie Laplante told THR. “So, yeah, we’re expecting the worst. This is an attempt to shut out Iraqi nationals, blanket across the board, not even having an interview with him and discovering he’s an artist and he’s trying to participate in a cultural exchange. Not even getting to that point. Just completely censoring him.” The festival is set to take place in March.