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    Iranian Film at South by Southwest London Offers a Dose of Hope

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    Amirali Navaee’s new film, “Sunshine Express,” screening next at South by Southwest London, is a project more focused on hope than politics.For the Iranian writer and director Amirali Navaee, portraying his country is not about depicting sadness and tragedy, which he feels has come to define the onscreen portrayal of his home in recent years.Iranian filmmakers have been as much in the news as their films have been over the past decade. The writer and director Mohammad Rasoulof fled Iran last year after being sentenced to eight years in prison while finishing “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” which tells the story of a family torn apart by protests that were violently crushed by the Iranian government in 2022-23. His harrowing journey has been well-documented, and the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year, with Rasoulof in attendance, where it received a special award from the competition jury. It was later nominated for best international feature at the Academy Awards.The Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, whose films “A Separation” (2012) and “The Salesman” (2017) both won Oscars for best international feature, refused to attend the Academy Awards the second time he won in protest over President Trump’s executive order that blocked entry of citizens from Iran and several other predominantly Muslim countries to the United States.And “Un Simple Accident,” from the Iranian writer-director Jafar Panahi, was awarded the Palme d’Or at Cannes last month. Panahi has been imprisoned several times in Iran because of his work but has continued to make movies in defiance of the Iranian government.“Sunshine Express” tells the story of people in a role-playing game who hope to win a cash prize.Distorted PicturesFor his first feature-length film, Navaee (pronounced nah-vah-YEE), who is also a choreographer and visual artist, said he wanted to express something more complex and less overtly political than other Iranian films. The project, “Sunshine Express,” debuted in February at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and is making its British premiere at South by Southwest London on Wednesday. Shot in a warehouse in Tehran on a small budget (Navaee, 42, said many of his friends helped finance the movie), it tells the story of people in a role-playing game on a train headed to a place called Hermia in the hopes of winning a cash prize.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      South by Southwest Cuts Ties to Army After Gaza-Inspired Boycott

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      The festival said it would no longer be sponsored by the U.S. Army or weapons manufacturers, which had prompted artists to withdraw from this year’s gathering.The South by Southwest festival, which dozens of artists withdrew from this year to protest its sponsorship by the U.S. Army and defense contractors in light of their ties to Israel, announced this week that it would no longer accept their support.“After careful consideration, we are revising our sponsorship model,” the festival, which is held each year in Austin, Texas, said in a brief statement on its website. “As a result, the U.S. Army, and companies who engage in weapons manufacturing, will not be sponsors of SXSW 2025.”No further details were offered, and SXSW declined to elaborate on the statement.A group called the Austin for Palestine Coalition said in a social media post in March, at the time of the festival, that more than 80 bands, artists and panelists had declined to attend “in solidarity with Palestine.”The Army hopes to work with SXSW again some day.“We look forward to a chance to work together in the future,” said Lt. Col. Jamie Dobson, the public affairs officer at the Army Futures Command in Austin, which works on technology and innovation. “A.F.C. loves being here in Austin. It’s a great community. And we were very proud of the partnership we had this past year.”She added, “We had a really good experience, especially on the innovation side, connecting with industry partners, technology leaders, everyone that gets pulled in.”Ibrahim Batshon, the chief executive of a digital music licensing platform called BeatStars, participated in the March boycott and said in an interview on Wednesday that he was pleased by the decision from SXSW, which he had attended for nearly 20 years.“We’ve always been huge fans and supporters of this multicultural art and music and film festival that has been a staple in artists’ lives,” he said.Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, a Republican, had dismissed the protesters in March, writing on social media, “Bye. Don’t come back,” and noting the state’s ties to the military. “We are proud of the U.S. military in Texas,” he wrote. “If you don’t like it, don’t come here.”Numerous cultural institutions around the country and the world have faced protests related to Israel and its conduct during the war in Gaza. More

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      ‘I was sick to my stomach’: George W. Bush denounces the Capitol riot in a new interview.

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      Former President George W. Bush said he was “disturbed” and “disgusted” by the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol in an interview streamed online Thursday.“I was sick to my stomach” to see “hostile forces” storm the Capitol, Mr. Bush said in an interview with The Texas Tribune’s chief executive, Evan Smith. “And it really disturbed me to the point where I did put out a statement, and I’m still disturbed when I think about it.”Mr. Bush added that the insurrection was not a peaceful expression of grievances. “It undermines rule of law and the ability to express yourself in peaceful ways in the public square,” he said.Asked if he thought the 2020 presidential election was stolen, Mr. Bush responded, “No.” Former President Donald J. Trump has repeatedly asserted that the election was rigged, even though there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud.Still, Mr. Bush said he did not believe the Trump administration had put democracy at risk by rejecting the election outcome.“What’s putting democracy at risk is the capacity to get on the internet to spread” false information, Mr. Bush said. “But checks and balances work.”Mr. Bush also said that he was optimistic about America’s future and that he had had a “good conversation” with President Biden.“He’s off to a good start, it looks like,” Mr. Bush said. “Hopefully, this anger will work its way out of the system.”He also said he was pleased to see high voter turnout in the 2018 and 2020 elections, which he said “shows the vibrancy of democracy.”Mr. Bush was speaking at this year’s SXSW online festival in a pretaped interview recorded on Feb. 24 to promote his new book, “Out of Many, One: Portraits of America’s Immigrants.”Mr. Bush previously called the insurrection, which left five people dead, “sickening” and “heartbreaking” in a Jan. 6 statement.“I am appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election and by the lack of respect shown today for our institutions, our traditions and our law enforcement,” he said, then adding, “The violent assault on the Capitol — and disruption of a constitutionally mandated meeting of Congress — was undertaken by people whose passions have been inflamed by falsehoods and false hopes.”In early November, Mr. Bush was one of the first prominent Republicans to congratulate Mr. Biden on his election win, even as Mr. Trump and many of his supporters defied the results and Republican leaders refused to publicly acknowledge Mr. Biden’s victory.Mr. Bush attended Mr. Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, alongside former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. More