IRAN has sentenced a film-maker and his producer to six months in prison after they showcased a film at Cannes without government approval.

Director Saeed Roustayi and producer Javad Norouzbeigi travelled to the Cannes Film Festival last year to show Leila’s Brothers, where it won two awards.

The film focuses on a family struggling to make ends meet as Iran faces international sanctions and includes scenes showing protests in the Islamic Republic as a series of nationwide demonstrations shook the nation.

The film also depicts security forces beating demonstrators.

Tehran’s Revolutionary Court sentenced the two men this week for creating “propaganda against the system.”

Mr Roustayi and Mr Norouzbeigi showcased the film “in line with the counter-revolutionary movement … with the aim of fame-seeking in order to prepare fodder and intensify the media battle against Iran's religious sovereignty,” the court decision read, according to Etemad, a Tehran-based newspaper.

Iran’s Revolutionary Courts conduct closed-door hearings over alleged threats to Iran’s government.

The sentence has received widespread international condemnation, including from US director Martin Scorsese.

And the Iranian Cinema Directors Association issued an online statement, saying that “the race to issue insulting verdicts, which at the same time undermines the judiciary itself, has entered a new stage.”

Iranian film-makers and actors have faced government pressures for their work, particularly after the September 2022 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after being detained by the country’s morality police over not properly wearing a mandatory headscarf.

Her death sparked nationwide protests and saw a security force crackdown that killed over 500 people and saw more than 22,000 others arrested.

Taraneh Alidoosti, one of the lead actors in Leila’s Brothers, was detained and later released on bail after posting online in support of the protests.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) today called on the United Nations to take immediate action against the escalating surge of “unlawful” arrests and oppression of the Baha’i minority community.

There have been at least 180 reported cases of the religious minority group being targeted by the state in the last year, according to the Baha’i International Community.

CHRI executive director Hadi Ghaemi said: “Global leaders must demand an end to the Islamic Republic’s severe oppression of this community and take measures against judges who unlawfully sentence Baha’is to prison.

“International indifference … will ensure more women and men from this community will not only continue to be deprived of their most basic rights but also spend decades behind bars.”