'Rosewater' shows courage of humor in Iran’s prisons
Jon Stewart’s directorial debut tells the story of journalist Maziar Bahari who was imprisoned in Iran during the 2009 protests.
Mixing prison diary with political commentary and topping it off with a sprinkling of New Jersey jokes, Jon Stewart wants audiences to take him (mostly) seriously in "Rosewater," his directorial debut.
The movie, which opens in theaters Nov. 14, is adapted from “Then They Came for Me,” the memoir of former Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari. Imprisoned by the Iranian government for 118 days in 2009 during protests over the country’s presidential elections, Bahari was accused of being a spy, a claim that authorities backed up with videos of his appearance in a Daily Show sketch. The bizarre circumstances of Bahari’s arrest and accusations that he was a spy for the CIA, MI6, Mossad and even Newsweek made the king of political satire a natural fit for the film adaptation.
Speaking to Al-Monitor in Washington, DC, Bahari said Stewart, who also produced the film and wrote the screenplay, understood the absurdity of his situation.
