Jailed director Jafar Panahi protests with hunger strike

Critically-acclaimed filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who has been in prison for the last six months, has started a hunger strike in Tehran's Evan jail.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the No Bears filmmaker's wife, Tahereh Saeidi, took to Instagram to announce the protest.

The 62-year-old released statement from his prison cell, saying, "This arrest was more like banditry and hostage-taking than the execution of a judicial sentence.

The Caméra d'Or winner stated he would not take any food, drink or medicine until his freedom from prison.

"I will remain in this state until perhaps my lifeless body is freed from prison," Panahi continued.

Meanwhile, the Iranian authorities reactivated a six-year sentence initially handed out to Panahi in 2010 with a 20-year filmmaking and travel ban.

The sentence was linked to his appearance at the 2009 funeral of a student killed in the Green Revolution.