Adelaide-based filmmaker Cyan Films and Family First MLC are offering assistance to the family of an Iranian actress sentenced to jail and lashing in Iran for doing an Australian movie illegally and inappropriately.

Kate Croser, who co-produced "My Tehran for Sale," said Marzieh Vafamehr has been sentenced to one year imprisonment and 90 lashings for illegally filming the movie in Tehran in 2008 and appearing on it with a shaved head and without a hijab, according to News.com.au. The producer, however, said there was a permit for the shooting.

Family First MLC, which represents South Australian families in the state parliament, also plans to ask the government to provide assistance to Vafamehr.

Melbourne-based Iranian director Granaz Moussavi, producer Julie Ryan, Vafamehr and Croser shot footages of the film in Tehran and brought these to Australia. The footages was turned into the movie "My Tehran for Sale" about the life of an Iranian actress who secretly does her job because theatre work is banned in Iran.

The movie was shown in Australia in 2009 and copies found its way to Iran. Iranian authorities found the film vulgar for showing modern Iranians in Western-style rave parties.

In July, Vafamehr was arrested in Tehran. Her family is appealing the punishment.