Review // Rosewater

In 2009 The Daily Show‘s Jason Jones travelled to Iran to cover the presidential elections for the satirical news show. While there he sat down with Iranian born journalist Maziar Bahari (on assignment for Newsweek) for a segment in which Jones pretended to be an American spy. A short time later, Bahari was in an Iranian jail charged with espionage. His story would become worldwide news, inspiring movements by journalist organizations around the world and even a statement from US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. After 118 days Bahari was released from prison, having suffered physical and psychological torture at the hands of the Iranian authorities, all as a result of a simple joke.

Bahari’s story is the type of real-life absurdity that comedic minds constantly attempt to recreate, so it’s no surprise that Daily Show host Jon Stewart was drawn to it instantly. Add the show’s partial involvement in the whole affair, and the fact that Bahari’s memoir about the event, Then They Came For Me, regularly portrays the events in a comical light, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for Stewart’s directorial debut.

Rosewater is a confidently told feature debut for the comedian, and certainly justifies the months he had to take away from his Comedy Central gig to make it. Though often rather blasé in it’s composition, it’s carried along by a very interesting story which extends into the history of the Bahari family. Regular appearances by his father (winningly portrayed by Haluk Bilginer) and sister (Golshifteh Farahani) break the monotony of Bahari’s prison sentence, but one gets the sense that these flashbacks play better in the book.

The story of a man trapped in a cell is much easier to tell as a novel than a film, but Stewart gives it an admirable go. At the centre of the story is the relationship between Bahari and an unnamed “specialist” who wears rosewater cologne. Sporadically barging into Bahari’s cell to blindfold him and press him with ridiculous questions, the interrogator (played by veteran actor Kim Bodnia) is the highlight of the film.  Tasked with forcing a confession from Bahari in order to gain a promotion, he fluctuates between anger and compassion, frustration and fear, and is an engaging and often comical embodiment of the Iranian government’s ineffectual attempt to stifle its citizens from contact with the wider world.

Though the interrogator often slips into the realm of the ridiculous (especially as Bahari realizes he can use the very things the state condemns in order to control him) it’s never an openly comic film. At its core Rosewater is still the story of a man imprisoned and tortured against his will, and Gael García Bernal makes sure to present Bahari as a normal guy suddenly caught in a very abnormal situation. Though not devoid of the stoic resolve we’ve come to expect from our on-screen political prisoners, he’s also portrayed with a healthy dose of rational good sense that feels refreshing, if slightly less dramatic.

Bahari’s story is one that has happened all too often to journalists and political dissidents in Iran, and it’s a cause for which he now fights. Though it may not be the most dazzling eye-candy, the film is carried forward by strong performances and a thought-provoking script. Like Stewart’s television persona, there is a large dose of truth behind this playful exterior.

Reviewed by Evan Arppe.

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