ENO Loses Iranian Director Angered By Visa Ordeal

“The English National Opera’s season has been thrown into chaos after an acclaimed Iranian director pulled out of a production in a row over the ‘disrespectful’ behaviour of British Embassy staff in Tehran. Abbas Kiarostami objected to the behaviour of officials as he attempted to negotiate his way through the ‘unduly time-consuming and complicated’ visa application process, which requires all applicants to be fingerprinted.”