Director: Jon Stewart
Year Released: 2014
Rating: 2.5
Iranian-Canadian reporter Maziar Bahari (Gael García Bernal), after filming the (rigged) "elections" of Iran (with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "winning"), is arrested in his mother's home and detained and tortured by the secret police for being a "spy" (the fact that he was interviewed by Jason Jones in a mock-bit for Stewart's Daily Show program on Comedy Central is used as "evidence"). While certainly a notable first film by exceptional comedian/author Stewart, his inexperience shows when it comes to the (protracted) interrogation scenes, which come across as less traumatizing than they were: Stewart's technique is a little too distanced and measured, which might have been suitable for a more meditative film. The peculiarities of the political corruptness of Iran (and Ahmadinejad's long list of atrocities) are only covered superficially, but given time and space constraints this was probably intentional. The Sopranos and Pasolini are both pornography? Goddamn it, Iran.
