An Iranian filmmaker says he won’t be coming to the 2020 Sundance Film Festival with his movie this month, opting to instead "stay with my people who have been under sanctions, pressure, and bans by all sick warmongers.”
Director Mahsood Bakhshi was set to appear in Park City when his drama “Yalda, a Night of Forgiveness” screened outside Iran for the first time, on Sunday, Jan. 26, at the Egyptian Theatre. A spokesman for Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute said Friday that “Yalda” would still screen.
According to reports in two Iranian news outlets, Bakhshi sent a letter to Redford himself, explaining why he wouldn’t be coming to Utah and citing rising tensions between his country and the United States.