Iranian director on hunger strike

Award-winning filmmaker Jafar Panahi has started a hunger strike to protest his imprisonment in Iran.

His wife, Tahereh Saeedi, told the opposition Rahesabz website, that Panahi stopped eating and drinking on Sunday and will continue his fast until he is allowed to see his family and a lawyer.

The 49-year-old writer and director, who supported Iran's pro-reform opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in last year's disputed presidential election, was arrested in March at his Tehran home by Iranian security forces, along with members of his family.

His family was later released, and Panahi was incarcerated in Tehran's Evin prison.

He has had frequent run-ins with Iranian authorities over his hard-hitting depictions of Iranian society in films such as Crimson Gold and The Circle, winner of a Golden Lion in Venice.

Panahi's detention prevented him from attending the 2010 Cannes Film Festival where he had been invited to sit on the jury that determines the winner of the festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or.

The Canadian government has expressed "deep concern" over Panahi's arrest and called for his release.

In a petition last month, leading Hollywood directors including Stephen Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese urged the Iranian government to release Pahani, saying filmmakers in Iran "should be celebrated, not censored, repressed and imprisoned."

Last year, a travel ban was imposed on Panahi by the Iranian government after he appeared wearing green, the colour of opposition supporters, at the Montreal film festival.

He was also briefly arrested after attending a memorial for student Neda Agha Soltan, who was killed at an opposition rally last June.

Panahi's most recent film is Offside, which won the 2006 Berlin Film Festival's Silver Bear award.