An American television comic made a directorial debut with this film. His name is Jon Stewart. While his comedy is largely political satire that I do not enjoy as much as mundane observations about the species made famous by Seinfeld, he is a razor wit and liked by many TV viewing audiences. I might just have to watch some of his archived product esp since he has announced retirement from his show later this year.
With this film Stewart has adapted a story of an Iranian Canadian journalist, Maziar Bahari working for Newsweek magazine and covering the 2009 (re) election of Ahmadinejad as the country's ruler.
Maziar is in Iran for the story and one morning gets picked up from his home by Iran Revolutionary Guard and jailed and later told he is a spy for the Western governments of Britain and USA. Iran concludes this based on a silly interview Maziar did for a comic (while in Iran) pretending to be a Western spy.
While the movie is a narrative of his solitary confinement and the tragic story of three of Maziar's family members (including himself during various periods in history) being jailed and tortured there are light moments that show this character's resolve to laugh in the absurdity of the situation.
For example he questions his captor if they think and they know he is a spy because he went on television and talked about being a spy? Spies do not do that. Duh!
The reference to rosewater is the fragrance that one of the captors wears during the interrogations in his jail cell. I could smell him before he came in is how Maziar describes his captor.
Ironically the rosewater is sprinkled on the pious worshippers of the almighty or so we thought - and how the movie opens.
With this film Stewart has adapted a story of an Iranian Canadian journalist, Maziar Bahari working for Newsweek magazine and covering the 2009 (re) election of Ahmadinejad as the country's ruler.
Maziar is in Iran for the story and one morning gets picked up from his home by Iran Revolutionary Guard and jailed and later told he is a spy for the Western governments of Britain and USA. Iran concludes this based on a silly interview Maziar did for a comic (while in Iran) pretending to be a Western spy.
While the movie is a narrative of his solitary confinement and the tragic story of three of Maziar's family members (including himself during various periods in history) being jailed and tortured there are light moments that show this character's resolve to laugh in the absurdity of the situation.
For example he questions his captor if they think and they know he is a spy because he went on television and talked about being a spy? Spies do not do that. Duh!
The reference to rosewater is the fragrance that one of the captors wears during the interrogations in his jail cell. I could smell him before he came in is how Maziar describes his captor.
Ironically the rosewater is sprinkled on the pious worshippers of the almighty or so we thought - and how the movie opens.
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