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Iranian Director Saeed Roustayee on Making ‘Woman and Child’ With a Government Permit and Hijabs: I Wouldn’t ‘Have Been Able to Make a Film of This Scale Underground’


Iranian Director Saeed Roustayee discusses making his female empowerment drama 'Woman and Child' with a permit and female characters wearing hijabs.

Iranian director Saeed Roustayee is back in Cannes with “ Woman and Child,” a female empowerment drama premiering in competition. Roustayee has been passionately defended against these accusations by fellow Iranian helmer Mohammad Rasoulof, who in May 2024 escaped from Iran to Europe after receiving a jail sentence from the country’s authorities for making “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” which premiered at Cannes with the director in tow last year. Whereas I certainly don’t like showing women with headscarves in private spaces in Iran, I feel that there is much more attention focused on this at the moment and it was the only way I had to tell a story, considering the amount of surveillance.

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