Culture minister lauds Farhadi’s Oscars

Iranian Culture Minister Seyyed-Reza Salehi-Amiri has congratulated Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi for winning the Academy Award for ‘The Salesman’.

The Iranian official also congratulated Farhadi’s stance against the racist policy of US President Donald Trump's administration against refugees.

Sending the message to Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, the minister wrote, “In today’s chaotic, insecure and dark world, it is altruism, pacifism and a shining light which bring freedom-seeking people together, and you were successful in using the expressive language of the arts to convey the peaceful message of Iran and Iranians beyond geographical borders.”

“Your symbolic absence at the Academy Awards as an objection to thoughtless and racist policies of America’s novice politicians against refugees brought together many with a good conscience together and removed the mask from the false faces of those so-called defenders of human rights, at the same time as it displayed to the world the true, culture-loving image of Iranians,” he also noted.

Appreciating the Iranian director in showing the deceitfulness of ‘Iranophobia’ which is projected to the world, Amiri-Salehi added, “you managed to tie the Iranian outlook of contemporary ills of humanity with the shared outlook of the whole world.”

Admiring Farhadi for sending the message of sympathy, empathy and solidarity to the globe, the minister concluded, “No doubt, Iranian Cinema with its major share in promoting and fostering culture and national security can make great use of such opportunities to introduce the Iranian arts on a global level.”

Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi won his second Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th edition of the Academy Awards ceremony held in Los Angeles, California, on February 26.

Following Trump’s executive order banning nationals of seven countries including Iran from entering the US, Farhadi boycotted the Academy Awards as a sign of protest.

Former Iranian NASA director Firouz Naderi and Iranian-American engineer Anousheh Ansari represented Farhadi at the ceremony and accepted the award on his behalf.

MG/AI