Filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof takes aim at Khamenei after his death

Exiled Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof has launched a fierce attack on the late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, describing him as "the most hated figure in the contemporary history of Iran" after the 86-year-old was killed in a joint US-Israeli strike.

In an Instagram statement, Rasoulof wrote that "death was a cheap end" for a ruler he accused of cloaking repression in "fake religion and holiness". Khamenei had led the Islamic Republic since 1989, overseeing decades of political crackdowns and, most recently, deadly suppression of anti-government protests.

Rasoulof has built his international reputation on films sharply critical of the Islamic Republic. Works such as Goodbye, A Man of Integrity and the Cannes-recognised Sacred Fig depict corruption, censorship and state coercion in Iran. Iranian authorities have repeatedly prosecuted him on charges linked to anti-regime propaganda, sentencing him to prison and imposing lengthy filmmaking bans. After years of legal battles and intermittent detention, he left Iran in 2024 following a fresh prison and flogging sentence.