ROSEWATER

US, 2014, 105 minutes, Colour.
Gael Garcia Banal, Kim Bodnia, Dimitri Leonidas, Haluk Bilginer, Shoreh Agdashloo, Golshifteh Farahani, Claire Foy.
Directed by Jon Stewart.

Rosewater sounds too sweet a name to describe the serious events in this film. Before the final credits, there is a comment about rosewater, its being sprinkled on pilgrims during pilgrimages when they are particularly sweaty – and then there is a pretty picture of collecting roses and extracting the rosewater and scent from them.

But, it all becomes very serious, as an Iranian-born journalist returns home, covering the 2009 elections, staying with his mother, but suddenly accosted at her home and arrested.

He is Maziar Bahari, played with sympathetic intensity by Gael Garcia Bernal. Then the film goes into flashback, 11 days earlier when Maziar is packing in London, farewelling his pregnant wife in some tender scenes and flying to Tehran for his assignment. He is met at the airport by one of those enthusiastic taxidrivers who insists that you go with them. He is sympathetic to the opposition candidate, standing against the famous President, Ahmajinedad.

Maziar is taken on a ride around the city (with some genuine vistas of Tehran mixed with performance footage filmed in Jordan) and meets with a conservative young enthusiast for the President, with students who are not, who are lamenting their experience of repression and unemployment.

There are scenes of the election day, crowds and riots in the city, again some actual footage from the period intermingled with the performances. Maziar keeps filming and sends the material through to London, with the help of Lindsay Hilsum, BBC correspondent of the period, here playing herself.

And then we’re back to the arrest, which means that the second half of the film focuses on Maziar in prison, confined in solitary for almost 4 months, the film using the device of naming the number of days of his being in prison. He is interrogated in a cruel and violent way (but with the caution that his face not be damaged if he has to appear on television). He is also interrogated in a ludicrous way, the authorities having taken several DVDs including Pasolini’s Teorema, the Sopranos, a CD of Leonard Cohen songs, all of which are deemed pornographic. The food is poor and he is for a large part of each day blindfolded. The interrogations are held with him blindfolded.

The authorities, one of whom wears Rosewater scent, which covers the sweat of Maziar in his suffering, want him to admit that he is a spy, something which seems quite bizarre in the context, and especially for journalists working in such magazines as Newsweek as he was. The world knows that his confession is only a show trial confession – with footage added in of news coverage from around the world as well as footage of Hillary Clinton commenting on the situation.

The film uses a clever device of having Maziar’s father present in the cell, conversing with his son, becoming the consciousness of the son, offering standards, because he himself had been imprisoned because of Communist sympathies but had given the authorities nothing. The father advises his son to play on the weaknesses of his interrogators – and does so, quite comically, eliciting their curiosity about sexual massage descriptions. At another stage, his sister appears in his cell – she had been executed.

While the story is interesting in itself, a lot of detail is given so that we share the experience. It is a strong critique of repressive measures, legislation, imprisonment in Iran.

The film has been written and directed by television host for The Daily Show for so many years, John Stewart. In the film there is a scene, made for The Daily Show, where Maziar has a mock interview in Tehran with a comedian posing as a spy journalist which the authorities take up, believing it is actually true. Later, Maziar was to write a memoir of his going Iran, his time in prison, his return to journalism and the birth of his child. John Stewart is drawing on his experience as a television current affairs host, the episode on his program, and adapting as Banari’s book.

This is quite compelling, all the more so because it is based on reality, but a reminder of what so many journalists experience in the contemporary world, arrest and imprisonment, even torture and execution, by repressive powers.

1. The title, the opening sequence, the collecting of the roses, the sprinkling of the rosewater in the rituals, Maziah’s memories, the sweat and the scent, the meaning of the title, as applied to the interrogator and his scent, Maziar and the interrogations, his fear and sweat?

2. Based on a true story, documented, the television footage, the actual characters of the comedian, Lindsay Hilsum of the BBC? The book, the adaptation?

3. John Stewart, his career, in film, The Daily Show, the initial joke for his show with the alleged spy? The connection with Maziar, his personal interest in the story, Iran, the elections, the ideologies, the imprisonment and torture?

4. The aim of the film, re-creating situations, the biographical aspects, the work of the journalist, the history of the family, of protest? The critique of the Iranian regime? The challenge to the audiences? Iran, the opening, the rest of Maziar, staying with his mother, the attitudes of the men arresting, taking the computer, cuffing Maziar, the car and looking at his mother, taken to prison?

5. The insertion of the flashback, United Kingdom, his packing, his wife pregnant, the tenderness of the scenes between them, anticipation of the baby? His working for Newsweek, covering the elections of 2009? Enough information for audiences, the two candidates, the history of President Ahmadiniejad, the stances of the people? The four years of the current regime?

6. Life in Iran, its reputation, the background of the Shah, the revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, Ahmadinejad, repression, the population accepting this or not, the young and the old, the various interviews, the conservative young, the students and their protest, their studies, the grants to the older children and their smoking pot? Issues of jobs? The blunt responses, giving their names? The satellite dishes on the roof – and their later being smashed? The atmosphere of terror?

7. The arrival at the airport, the taxi driver, his talk, his sympathies, the photo, offering to be Maziar’s driver? The bike? taking him around, meeting the various people, the conservatives, the progressives, all filmed?

8. The history of the family, his father, long imprisonment, Communist background, giving nothing to the authorities? His sister and her execution? The device of having them appear with Mazia in the prison? The dialogue between father and son, his standards? The device of the father being the consciousness of the son? The pathos of the scene with his sister?

9. The comedy episode, the pretend spy on The Daily Show – being filmed, Maziar saying the US and Iran had a common enemy Al Qaeda?

10. The elections, the crowds, the reports, the results, the suggestion that the election was rigged? Rioting in the streets? The shootings? Maziar filming?

11. The eagerness with the footage, Lindsay Hilsum as the real correspondent with the BBC, the editing, sending it through to London, the broadcast?

12. The film going back to the arrest, the cell, solitary, the blindfold, the rough treatment?

13. Almost 4 months, the device of naming the number of days? The effect?

14. Treatment, violence, physical, psychological, the beatings? Isolation, hearing outside? The bad food? The interrogator and the demands, his own background, Rosewater, the man in charge and caution about beatings and Maziar’s face not marked for television? The collecting of the DVDs and
magazines, stating that Teorema, Leonard Cohen’s song, The Sopranos were pornography? Accusations of spying, orders, preparing the confession, Maziar and his dilemmas, finally signing? The pressure from his father? Going out into the s or un, the reasons for his decisions and signing, rigged trial? Going on television, the plainness of the confession? Going back to solitary, being punched, the temptation to break his glasses and slit his wrists? The amusement of his dense?

15. The news, the, collage of actual international footage? Hillary Clinton and footage and her appeal?

16. His father urging him to play on the weaknesses of his interrogators, the phone call to his wife, their expectations that he would control his wife and her opinions? The response? His life in, spinning out in detail of the massage stories and the interrogator being interested?

17. Wanting him to be a spy? His immediately signing the document, getting out, his mother meeting him? The final reactions of the interrogators?

18. His mother, in the plane, going to his wife, photographing the birth of the child?

19. Iran, 2009, the change of government in 2013? The regime, standards, religious background, no democracy, imprisonment, cruelty? The tenets of Islam, the laws of Allah? Treatment of prisoners? The film and its critique?

20. The film and its comments on the United States in comparison with Iran?