Rosewater
In 2009, The Daily Show interviewed the Iranian-Canadian journalist and filmmaker Maziar Bahari. In the segment, the comedy show's correspondent pretended to be an American spy. The joke didn't seem nearly as funny months later, when Bahari found himself imprisoned in Iran and footage from the interview was used as evidence of his perfidy.
Bahari had returned to his motherland to cover the Green Revolution. Despite efforts at self-censorship-his father and sister had previously been imprisoned for activism-he still was arrested on suspicion of being an American agent.
Now Jon Stewart has made a movie about Bahari's four months of incarceration and torture. The film, Rosewater, which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, has already brought in at least one negative review: A "media critic" on Iranian state TV decried the film as CIA-funded Zionist propaganda, saying "Jon has been directing an ultra-formulaic movie commissioned by his masters." -Katherine Mangu-Ward
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?