ROSEWATER (2014)
Written and directed
by Jon Stewart
Open Roads Films, 103
minutes, R (language, violence, suggestiveness)
* * * *
A lot of my liberal friends ask me why I oppose Obama's
treaty with Iran. I tell them that Iran is a theocratic dictatorship that deserves
global ostracism, not its stamp of legitimacy. But don't take my word for it;
ask Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, who spent 118 days of torture,
abuse, and deprivation in Iranian jails. Lucky for him he was a foreign
national and a Newsweek correspondent,
or he would have simply disappeared.
Bahari's Then They
Came for Me is harrowing reading and if you don't want to read it, check
out Jon Stewart's directorial debut film based upon Bahari's memoir. It is shot
in documentary-meets-biography style. We watch as happy-go-lucky Bahari (Gael
Garcia Bernal) lands in Tehran and visits his mother, then proceeds to do what
good journalists do: seek out sources. He was in Tehran to report upon the
protests surrounding the 2009 election-one blatantly stolen from the opposition
so that brutal Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—the Persian Putin--could stay in power and do
the mullahs' bidding. Bahari reported on the rumors, filmed the crackdown, and
interviewed dissidents—the stuff journalists do. For this he was jailed as a
spy and Zionist tool. We watch the effort to breakdown Bahari for propaganda
purposes, mostly by an interrogator unsuccessfully playing the "good
cop" role before turning Bahari over to the rough treatment boys. The
first inquisitor is the film's titular Rosewater (Kim Bodnia); Bahari is always
blindfolded and comes to identify his tormentor by scent long before he sees
his face.
The prison scenes are predictably horrifying, especially in
conveying a sense of isolation, as Bahari spent most of his time in solitary
confinement. But Stewart throws in two twists—Bahari's imagined conversations
with his father, who was imprisoned by the Shah; and with his sister, who ran
afoul of Khomeini. The second twist is subtler and ultimately more powerful:
Bahari's realization that his captors are both fascinated by the West and are
as frightened by him as he is of them. That revelation was ultimately Bahari's
soul- and mind-saving grace.
Stewart knows his way around the camera and uses light and
angles effectively to build drama and set moods. The only self-reverential nod
to The Daily Show is a brief segment
in which Bahari agrees to a satirical interview with Jason Jones. Need I tell
you that Iran's masters are not noted for their sense of humor? Stewart wisely
abandons his TV rant style for a detached one that makes the Iranian government
appear more ridiculous (and dangerous) than any contrived script could have
done. Stewart's only slip-up lies in odd casting. Garcia Bernal is a fine actor
capable of chameleon performances and he does his best in Rosewater. Still, Bernal is Mexican and aren't we decades past the
days in which we don't "see" when someone is in ethnic drag? Good as
Bernal was, there are numerous Iranian actors who would have been more
appropriate choices (Ramin Korimloo, Asghar Farhadi, Shabab Hosseini…).
I'm at a loss to understand why this film bombed at the box
office: just $3.1 million in receipts on a budget of over $5 million. Maybe
Americans only want Jon Stewart to be funny, or maybe the bleak subject put
them off. Or maybe they swallowed the same Kool-Aid that Obama drank. Iran's
reaction to this film was to denounce Stewart as a Zionist CIA agent. Isn't
that what they said about Bahari? The Shah… Khomeini… the mullahs… The more
things change, the more they stay the same. Good on Jon Stewart for exposing
the reality beneath the turbans.
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