TIFF: Rosewater Review

Rosewater (2014)

Cast: Gael García Bernal, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Golshifteh Farahani
Director: Jon Stewart
Country: USA
Genre: Drama
Official Trailer: Here

Editor’s Notes: The following review is part of our coverage of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. For more information on the festival visit http://tiff.net and follow TIFF on Twitter at @TIFF_NET.

Jason Jones of The Daily Show interviewed Maziar Bahari in 2009. This was in Iran where Bahari was a Newsweek reporter covering the Iran elections. A few days later Bahari was arrested by the Iranian government for espionage and imprisoned for 118 days. Bahari was interrogated and tortured daily for five months, and ordered to falsely confess so that he could be released.

Based on Bahari’s memoir Then They Came For Me, Jon Stewart does his best to retell Bahari’s story in a brutally honest way. However, unsurprisingly considering Stewart, there are lighthearted moments infused. When the interrogators come to Bahari’s home they go through his DVD collection. Finding copies of The Soprano’s and Pasolini’s Teorama, and a Leonard Cohen album, he is asked if it’s all porn. Hilarious to us the viewer because we know it isn’t porn, but it’s a good way of showing how people might view such things outside of the western world. Empire magazine might not look like porn to us, but sometimes, you have to wonder.

There is an obvious care here by the director for his subject and Gael García Bernal as Bahari is an excellent choice. Bernal has always inhabited roles with nuanced performances and this one is no different.

Stewart places odd moments of absurdity throughout the film. It may be Stewart’s way of giving the audience a break from the seriousness of the situation, or it may be how he’s used to making an audience receptive to such moments of doom and gloom. Either way, it teeters on taking away from the solemnity of film, but doesn’t digress too far.

There is an obvious care here by the director for his subject and Gael García Bernal as Bahari is an excellent choice. Bernal has always inhabited roles with nuanced performances and this one is no different. Kim Bodnia plays the interrogator aka Rosewater (because he smells like rosewater and Bahari spent most of his time blindfolded). The chemistry between Bernal and Bodnia is there, but it isn’t explored as much as it should have been. Instead, we feel more for Bahari through his interactions with his dead father (Haluk Bilginer) and his dead sister (Golshifteh Garahani). These two characters are crucial to Bahari’s past for they come from different periods of resistance, and offer a tiny bit more insight about Iran’s history of civil strife and change. Shohreh Aghdashloo is wonderful as Bahari’s mother and deserved way more screen time.

Stewart makes it known that we all have the means to help political prisoners such as Bahari. His appearance on The Daily Show prompted his arrest in Iran, but it was through international pressure, in letters and in media, that Bahari was eventually freed.

There was an international campaign to free Bahari and it’s all shown through a small montage. This could have been expanded upon, longer perhaps, to show the real isolation Bahari must have felt in not knowing if people had forgotten him. Stewart concentrates on revealing what most people don’t know about Iran. Iran is full of educated people. They are either rich or poor, but they know full well what needs to change and they have made many efforts to take back the power from the corrupt. Through media exposure and human rights organizations we are given a glimpse into that world, but sometimes that just isn’t enough. Voices and faces need to be given to those who are powerless. Stewart makes it known that we all have the means to help political prisoners such as Bahari. His appearance on The Daily Show prompted his arrest in Iran, but it was through international pressure, in letters and in media, that Bahari was eventually freed.

Jon Stewart displays a great skill as a storyteller in Rosewater and it takes guts to take on a story like this as a first effort by a director. I look forward to his further cinematic explorations.