Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show, wrote and directed this political drama adapted from Newsweek correspondent/broadcast journalist Maziar Bahari's bestselling memoir, Then They Came for Me: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival. Rosewater begins with 42-year-old Bahari (Gael García Bernal), who holds Iranian/Canadian citizenship, arriving in Tehran to interview Mir-Hossein Mousavi, a challenger to incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2009 election. Befriended by his driver (Dimitri Leonidas), Bahari is able to film Mousavi's young supporters protesting Ahmadinejad's declaration of a “landslide victory” hours before the polls closed. Immediately afterwards, however, Bahari is accused of espionage by the Islamic Republic. Spending the next 118 days in solitary confinement, surreally haunted by the ghost of his father (Haluk Bilginer), who had been imprisoned by the Shah in 1953, Bahari is brutally interrogated and tortured by Jabadi (Kim Bodnia), who the blindfolded Bahari can only identify by his rosewater-scented cologne. Meanwhile, in London, Bahari's pregnant wife (Claire Foy) leads an international campaign to obtain his freedom, which is picked up by media outlets, including Comedy Central. An intriguing political drama that is particularly relevant today—given ISIS's capture, torture, and killing of journalists—Rosewater smartly illustrates the absurdity of totalitarian regimes. Recommended. (S. Granger)
Rosewater
Universal, 104 min., R, DVD: $29.98, Blu-ray/DVD Combo: $34.98, Feb. 10 Volume 30, Issue 2
Rosewater
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