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John Stewart’s Film Director Debut ‘Rosewater’ May be a Little Too Sweet
By Sandra Olmsted
In his debut as a feature-film director, The Daily Show host Jon Stewart tackles the Iranian government crackdown on the Green Movement after the conservative incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suspiciously defeats his opponent, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who is a moderate whom the West and apparently the young Iranian adults believe will make Iran a better place.
The main character in Rosewater, Maziar Bahari (Gael Garcia Bernal), a London-based Iranian who works for Newsweek, recounts being held and tortured by the Iranian government in Then They Came for Me. One of the key pieces of evidence used against Bahari was a silly interview done for Stewart’s show and is the reason that Stewart wanted to do this film.
In Rosewater, Bahari leaves his pregnant English wife, Paola (Claire Foy), to cover the Iranian elections which seem too close to call and discovers a world hidden from authorities in Iran and from the outside world. Through his driver, Davood (Dimitri Leonidas), who whisks Bahari through the subculture of Iranian youth on a motorcycle, Bahari finds that the twenty-somethings of Iran desire the free that the young people enjoy in many other parts of the world. When the election goes to Ahmadinejad, the youth reject the election as fraudulent and take to the streets, but the government has other ideas. As the Green Movement turns brown and disappears, Bahari’s four months of captivity and torture begins. The title, Rosewater, refers to the fact that Bahari’s torture didn’t shower often and covered their body odor with rose water.
Since Stewart is a friend of the real Bahari, who appeared on The Daily Show both before and after his incarceration in Iran, Stewart infuses the film with personal passion. With the help of cinematographer Bobby Bukowski and editor Jay Rabinowitz, Stewart delivers a solid biopic. However, given the treatment of prisoners currently by ISIL in the Middle East, Bahari’s treatment doesn’t look so shocking.
Rosewater does raise questions about the fate of Davood and his friends at the hands of their own government. Shohreh Aghdashloo plays Bahari’s mother, and Kim Bodnia his interrogator. Rosewater, an Open Road Films release, is rated R for language including some crude references, and violent content and runs 103 minutes. Rosewater is in theaters now and might get some nods at Oscar time.
