Johnny Depp has expressed support for imprisoned Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov by joining a new campaign called “Imprisoned for Art.”
The Voice Project, an initiative that promotes and defends freedom of expression, launched the campaign to advocate for artists who are currently political prisoners in various countries.
Depp, Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Peter Gabriel and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Prophets of Rage are among those celebrities who joined the campaign by taking photos in which they each hold up a prison board with one artist’s sentencing date and length of prison term.
Depp is the campaign’s face highlighting the situation of Sentsov, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence in Russia. Sentsov, whose film Gamer was screened at the Rotterdam Film Festival in 2012 to critical acclaim, was arrested in May 2014, shortly after Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsular region of Crimea, where he resided.
In August 2015, a Russian court sentenced Sentsov to 20 years in prison on terror charges, which he denied and many observers said were politically motivated.
Many international film personalities, including Pedro Almodovar, Ken Loach, Mike Leigh, Wim Wenders and Agnieszka Holland, have expressed support for Sentsov.
The campaign also supports singer Tran Vu anh Binh, imprisoned in Vietnam; author and journalist Dawit Isaak, imprisoned in Eritrea; and singer Nudem Durak, imprisoned in Turkey.
All the images of the campaign are available on T-shirts, and all proceeds from sales will be spent on advocacy efforts, The Voice Project said on its website.
