NP not even the oil

[Heikki Raudaskoski]

One Visa Problem Costs a Festival Two Filmmakers

By CELESTINE BOHLEN


The internationally acclaimed Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami, who
won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1997 for "A Taste of Cherry," was unable
to get a United States visa in time to attend the premiere of his new
film, "Ten," at the New York Film Festival last Saturday, prompting his
friend and fellow director Aki Kaurismaki of Finland to boycott the
festival in protest.

"If international cultural exchange is prevented, what is left?" asked Mr.
Kaurismaki, whose new film "The Man Without a Past" will be shown at this
year's festival. "The exchange of arms?"

Mr. Kiarostami, 62, who has been to the United States seven times in the
course of his career, was told this month at the United States Embassy in
Paris that the earliest he could get permission to come into the country
was December.

Stringent new rules, put in place after last year's terrorist attacks, now
require a three-month background check on some applicants for United
States visas, in particular those from Muslim countries.

After news of Mr. Kiarostami's visa problems circulated in Europe, Mr.
Kaurismaki announced that he would stay away from the festival as a
gesture of solidarity. In a prepared statement, he wrote, "Not with anger
(which has never brought anything good) but with deep sorrow" he had
learned that the Iranian director was refused a visa because of his
citizenship.

If the United States authorities do not want "an Iranian, they will hardly
have any use for a Finn, either," he wrote. "We do not even have the oil."

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http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/01/movies/01DIRE.html


Heikki