AN IRANIAN actor has been sentenced to one year in prison and 90 lashes for her starring role in Australian film My Tehran for Sale.
In an outcome that could have been lifted from the pages of the movie's script, Marzieh Vafamehr was arrested in July and received her sentence at the weekend, according to reports quoting Iranian opposition website kalameh.com.
The exact nature of the crime she was charged with is unclear and the Iranian embassy in Canberra did not respond to The Age's request for comment. Vafamehr often appears with a shaved head and no headscarf in the film, which also explores cultural oppression in Iran and taboos such as drug use.

A still from the movie My Tehran for Sale showing actor Marzieh Vafamehr. The Adelaide Film Festival contributed to the film's production costs. Photo: Bonnie Elliott
One of the film's Australian producers, Kate Croser from Adelaide production house Cyan Films, confirmed the sentence. Neither the producers nor the film's Melbourne-based director, Iranian-Australian Granaz Moussavi, would comment because of Vafamehr's family's wishes to let the case follow the proper legal channels. Vafamehr will appeal her sentence.
Shot on the sly in Iran with a local crew in 2008, My Tehran for Sale is a fictional work. However, in a previous interview Moussavi said she also drew on her own experiences and those of the people she met as an interpreter at the Woomera Detention Centre for the film.
''I believe that when you do anything independent in Iran, … writing or making films, there is always the issue of getting criticised or negatively thought of,'' she told The Age in 2008.

The film's poster.
The film focuses on ''Marzieh'' (played by Moussavi's childhood friend Marzieh Vafamehr), an actress struggling under her country's controls over artistic expression. The government has banned Marzieh's work, and her romance with an Iranian-Australian expat (Amir Chegini) leads her to consider life outside Iran.
The film also deals with the secret lives of Iran's youth and, in one poignant scene, young people arrested at an underground dance party await their punishment as the sound of a cracking whip is heard in the background.
The film has never officially screened in Iran but had its Australian debut at the Adelaide Film Festival in 2009. Its international debut was at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Moussavi toured the film around the country last year as part of the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival. The film's makers won an Independent Spirit award at the Inside Film Awards in 2009.
Human Rights Film Festival director Matt Benetti said news of Vafamehr's arrest was a shock.
''It just hits home much more,'' he said. ''Iran in particular seems to censor a lot of the artworks of a political nature and I just think it's really important it gets out.''
Katrina Sedgwick, director of the Adelaide Film Festival, described news of Vafamehr's arrest as ''surreal''. The festival had helped Moussavi develop the film and contributed about $125,000 to its production.
The film is due to be shown as part of an Amnesty International women's rights film festival later this year.
Amnesty International Middle East and North African spokesman James Lynch said film industry workers were the latest group to be targeted by Iranian authorities and described Vafamehr's sentence of flogging as ''cruel, inhuman and degrading''.

Directed by: Granaz Moussavi
Date of birth: 26 January 1974, Tehran, Iran
Writing credits: Granaz Moussavi
Music by: Mohsen Namjou
Country: Australia | Iran
Language: Farsi | English
Color: Color
Runtime: 96 min.
Released: 2009
Genre: Drama
Synopsis
Debut film by the Iranian female poet Granaz Moussavi is about the secret double life that many young people lead in repressive Iran. They can only be themselves and express themselves behind closed doors.
The film shows an underground scene in Teheran that is never reflected in the media. -- IFFR
Marzieh is a young female actress living in Tehran. The authorities ban her theatre work and, like all young people in Iran, she is forced to lead a secret life in order to express herself artistically.
At an underground rave, she meets Iranian born Saman, now an Australian citizen, who offers her a way out of her country and the possibility of living without fear.
Shot entirely on location in Tehran, MY TEHRAN FOR SALE tells the story of modern day Iranian youth struggling for cultural freedom. It brings to the screen never before seen images of modern urban Iran, and reveals how young Iranian people live behind closed doors.
My Tehran for Sale is the first Iranian/Australian feature film collaboration and is the directorial debut of contemporary poet Granaz Moussavi. -- Cyan Films
Cast: Marzieh Vafamehr, Amir Chegini, Asha Mehrabi, Mobina Karimi, Mitra Mehraban, Sandy Cameron, Hadi Mansouri, Seyedd Mehdi Heydari
Crew
Director: Granaz Moussavi
Writer: Granaz Moussavi
Producers: Julie Ryan, Kate Croser, Granaz Moussavi
Cinematograher: Bonnie Elliott
Editor: Bryan Mason
Sound: Tom Heuzenroeder, Yadollah Najafi
Music: Mohsen Namjou
Filming Locations: Tehran, Iran