American actress Julianne Moore led a flash-mob protest on the Venice red carpet on Friday in support of filmmakers detained around the world, including a jailed Myanmar creator, as the festival premiered the new movie from imprisoned Iranian director Jafar Panahi. 

Panahi, who won the top prize Golden Lion in Venice in 2000, was jailed in July along with two other filmmakers in the latest crackdown on Iranian civil society. 

Moore, who is leading the jury at this year's festival, was joined for the protest by dozens of other artists, including British director Sally Potter and last year's Golden Lion winner, France's Audrey Diwan. 

They held posters that also highlighted the detention of Myanmar filmmaker Ma Aeint and Turkish producer Cigdem Mater.
 
Despite years of attempts to silence him, Panahi's new film "No Bears" shows that he has lost none of his searing political critique and wry sense of humour. The film is partly focused on Iranians in Turkey, trying desperately to emigrate to Europe.

Myanmar’s Ma Aeint was sentenced to three years in jail with hard labour in April by a Yangon court.

She was found guilty of breaching Article 505 (A) of Myanmar’s criminal code, which penalizes “causing fear, spreading fake news or agitating against government employees.” She was alleged to have given money to an illegal organization that opposes the February coup and the return of the country to totalitarian military control, the magazine says.

The International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR) spoke out in April against the harsh sentence given to the Myanmar film maker. 

Ma Aeint is the producer of the film “Money Has Four Legs,” which was directed by Maung Sun and began screening at festivals in 2020 before Myanmar was hit by the military coup in February 2021.

AFP, Mizzima