Iran's hardline Revolutionary Court released feminist film director Tahmineh Milani after a week in jail on charges of working against the revolution.
Milani was released, pending further investigations, after the deputy minister of culture urged a judge at the court to release her.
Milani's latest film, The Hidden Half, tells the story of a politically naive woman's romance with a leftist rebel during the turmoil in Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Reformist officials and members of the film community in Iran had denounced Milani's arrest. It was not immediately clear when the court investigations would end and no date has been set for her trial.
Milani's movies generally deal with the plight of Iranian women and their struggle for identity in a male-dominated society. One of her best-known films, Two Women, takes a stab at Iran's Islamic judicial system for prevailing prejudices against women.
Hardline courts have jailed dozens of liberal activists and closed some 50 publications in last two years, but until now film-makers had been spared.