First Trailer for Jon Stewart's ROSEWATER

I have never been one who takes instantly to tales of war or politics though once I sit down and give them a fair shot I typically become intrigued. While I am interested in Jon Stewart's directorial debut simply because I enjoy his other work it is also interesting that this seems like a project we wouldn't expect from him given his relation to satire and comedy. It is of course intriguing to see what Stewart might do in a different realm of entertainment and it is of course admirable he doesn't want to be pigeon-hole himself strictly as a funny guy, but given he is already regarded as an intelligent comedian it almost makes sense his first film as a writer/director is one that deals the reality of what he usually takes on from a different angle. The film is based on the true story of journalist Maziar Bahari and Stewart has adapted his memoir, Then They Came for Me: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity and Survival for the screen. Bahari went to Iran in 2009 to cover the elections for Newsweek magazine and interview Mir-Hossein Moussavi, but was arrested, interrogated and beaten for 118 days by a man known only to him as “Rosewater”. The description does a better job of making the story sound interesting than the trailer is able to as certain aspects feel manipulative, though I'm sure within the context of the full film they might play more genuinely. I can't say I'm overly anxious to see the film, but I'm certainly intrigued. Rosewater stars Gael Garcia Bernal, Kim Bodnia, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Golshifteh Farahani, Kim Bodnia and opens on November 7th.



Synopsis: Rosewater is based on the best-selling memoir by Maziar Bahari. The film is the directorial debut of Jon Stewart, and stars Gael García Bernal. Rosewater follows the Tehran-born Bahari, a journalist with Canadian citizenship. In June 2009, Bahari returned to Iran to interview Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who was the challenger to president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. As Mousavi’s supporters protested Ahmadinejad’s victory declaration hours before the polls closed, Bahari endured personal risk by sending footage of the street riots to the BBC. Bahari was arrested by police, led by a man identifying himself as “Rosewater,” who tortured and interrogated him over the next 118 days. With Bahari’s wife leading an international campaign to have her husband freed, and media outlets keeping the story alive, Iranian authorities released Bahari on bail and the promise he would act as a spy for the government.