US: The US consular section here last week refused to issue a visa to Abbas Kiarostami, who is widely considered to be one of the world's greatest living film directors. Mr Kiarostami won the Palme d'Or at Cannes for The Taste of the Cherry in 1997, and his latest film, Ten, was released to rave reviews in Paris this week. It tells the story of a woman taxi-driver and 10 of her passengers in Tehran.
Mr Kiarostami was invited to the US by the New York International Film Festival, Harvard University and the University of Ohio. Ten is to be released in the US on September 28th, but Mr Kiarostami will not be there for the occasion.
Under the State Department's new "anti-terrorism" regulations, all Iranian visa applicants must attend an interview, followed by a waiting period of six to eight weeks. The French producer of Ten, Mr Marin Karmitz, contacted the former French culture minister, Mr Jack Lang, who appealed to the US ambassador to France, Mr Howard Leach. The embassy said that no exception could be made for Mr Kiarostami.
Sadly, the incident recounted on the front page of Le Monde will confirm French prejudice about the idiocy of US officials.
Mr Lang told Le Monde that the visa refusal showed "intellectual isolationism and ignorance bordering on contempt for other cultures". Mr Kiarostami wrote to Mr Richard Pena, the organiser of the New York Film Festival, to "justify" his absence.
Even before September 11th, famous Iranian film-makers had bad luck with US immigration officials. In May 2001, Mr Jafar Panahi, whose film The Circle won the Lion d'Or at the Venice Film Festival, arrived in New York to accept the Freedom of Expression Award. He was promptly jailed and expelled.
