Tehran (AFP) - Iranian authorities arrested two film directors on Friday for "disturbing public order" for encouraging protests after a building collapse in the southwest of the country killed dozens in May, according to the Iranian news agency (IRNA).

The agency stated that award-winning director Muhammad Rasoulof and his colleague Mustafa al-Ahmad "encouraged the demonstrations and disturbed public order and public safety, while the city of Abadan was witnessing a terrible tragedy," after a building collapse on May 23, which killed 43 people.

The Metropole building, which was under construction in Abadan, one of the main cities in Khuzestan province in the southwest of the country, partially collapsed into a busy street.

The disaster, one of the deadliest in years in Iran, sparked a series of demonstrations across the country in solidarity with the families of the victims and against authorities accused of corruption and incompetence.

The demonstrators demanded the trial and punishment of the "incompetent officials" who caused the tragedy. During the protests, Iranian police used tear gas, fired warning shots and made a series of arrests.

A group of Iranian filmmakers led by Rasoulof published an open letter in late May calling on security forces to "lay down their arms" in the face of anger at "corruption, theft, incompetence, and oppression."

Muhammad Rasoulof, 50, won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival in 2020 for his movie “The Devil Does Not Exist”, but he was unable to go to Germany after Tehran confiscated his passport following his previous feature film in 2017 entitled “An Honest Man”, which was shown in Cannes Film Festival and won a prize in the "What Look" category.