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East Meets West, Again, in Rosewater by Doniphan Blair
Gael Garcia Bernal (the star), Maziar Bahari (the subject and consultant) and Jon Stewart (director/writer) enjoy a successful take during the shooting of the latter's film debut, 'Rosewater'. photo: courtesy J. Stewart
IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE THAT JON
Stewart, the king of satire, has come out as a "serious" filmmaker.
How much closer can you get to perfect satire—"the use of irony, exaggeration or ridicule to reveal and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in political or other topical contexts"—than the wildly popular "Daily Show", which he has captained since 1999?
When I heard Stewart was jumping into features with "Rosewater", which he wrote and directed (see trailer here), I assumed it would be hard satire or outright farce, a word which sounds a bit like "Farsi," the language of Iran, but bears little furthur resemblance.
Farce, "a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and often including crude characterization or ludicrously improbable situations," covers part of Stewart's oeuvre, as well as Iran's, while another literary form, parody—"a humorous or satirical imitation of something serious," is also quite applicable to the "Daily Show", given its broadcast news format.
Ironically, although "Rosewater" is evocative and powerful, it remains a standard bio-pic following Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian journalist (sometimes for Newsweek) and filmmaker, as he is arrested in Tehran after the 2009 elections.
Aside from a couple of tough wisecracks during torture sessions, it is played straight, sometimes sappy even, the only hint of farce being the reason for Bahari's imprisonment, which is explained through a remake, using "Rosewater" actors, of a clip from the "Daily Show".
Gael Garcia Bernal, as Maziar Bahari, getting tortured by the man he called Rosewater, played by Kim Bodnia. photo: courtesy J. Stewart
Evidently, Iranian authorities monitor the Great Satan's media, from the actual news to "Seinfeld" reruns ("My, those Jews are funny!") and the "Daily Show", where they happened to catch comedian Jason Jones, in Tehran to "cover" the 2009 elections, interviewing Maziar Bahari about his—wink, wink—espionage and terrorist activities.
Since farce is not that big among among oppressor types, in general, or the ayatollahs—indeed, there is no Farsi farce tradition, the Iranian secret police assumed the "Daily Show" was on to something, despite the absurdity of spies announcing actions on television, a comedy show no less, as Bahari pointed out in a black humor bit of his "enhanced" interrogation.
Bahari's interrogator/torturer—the eponymous "Rosewater", well played by Danish actor Kim Bodnia, whom Bahari called Rosewater due to the common cologne he wore, which is how the blindfolded Bahari identified him—probably doesn't get it, even today.
Although those "ludicrously improbable situations" and the "Daily Show" clip-remake make "Rosewater" farcical, behind the uplift of Bahari's liberation, artistic revenge and friendship with Stewart, the movie is essentially tragedy.
Iran, a great nation, empire and culture—Islam's greatest poets wrote in Farci, has produced a revolution, some democracy and many filmmakers acclaimed across the West BUT not enough sophistication to discern satire.
Iran's top filmmakers, authors and artists are brilliant but they tend towards heart-felt stories, often leaving political and romantic references to black humor or deep metaphor, much like the great poet Hafez, who endured the depredations of the 14th century but didn't mention anything in his spectacularly romantic verse.
Stewart gives Iranian cineastes a run for their money, in both his humanism and his artistry, which includes some fabulous optical effects by Michael Huber and Laura J. Hill: a montage of faces, for example, double-exposed on a wall, as the Bahari character walks along, pondering.
On location in Jordan where Stewart and his cast and crew shot at an existing prison. photo: courtesy J. Stewart
In prison, his father and sister become corporal, which was less effective for this viewer, although the cinematography by Bobby Bukowski, known for "The Messenger" (2009) and "Arlington Road" (1999), was excellent and unobtrusive throughout.
The cast is similarly stellar, including Bahari's mother, who is played by the phenomenal, smokey-voiced Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo.
"Rosewater" stars the once indie Mexican but now international pop star Gael Garcia Bernal, whose imprimatur lends farcical as well as thespian weight. Bernal's "Case de Mi Padre" collaboration with Will Ferrell conjured a farce so avant, it was missed by most viewers.
Set to play any "other-nationality-ed" English-speakers ("Rosewater is almost entirely in English), Bernal embodies the intellectual Bahari, who is from a family of hardy radicals, all of whom have done time, including considerably harsher under the Shah, although the Islamic Republic murdered many more.
As economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic reach their twentieth year, as the nuke negotiations pass their November 25th deadline, as Iran continues to insist on the right to nuclear power and the simple fact that it's a theocracy and Shi'aism is Islam's messianic wing, the nation's murder rate could easily go much higher.
Fortunately for Bahari, his wife led an international campaign, the story was kept alive by Western media, including the "Daily Show", and he was released after 118 days on $300,000 bail and the promise to start running for Iran as a spy on the West—that is no joke considering Iran's history of assassinating its out-of-line own in the West.
Bahari, on whose book "Rosewater" is based ("Then They Came for Me", 2011), is also an accomplished filmmaker. He has directed and produced ten major pieces, doc and fiction, notably "And Along Came a Spider" (2003) and "Of Shame and Coffins" (2000).
Bahari, Bernal and Stewart at the film's opening night. photo: courtesy J. Stewart
Although Stewart tells his story eloquently and, with Bahari's help, digs deep into the Iranian zeitgeist, he did not suddenly blossom into another Hitchcock, De Palma or Tarantino.
Turning "Rosewater" transcendentally dramatic would have required a long, brutal and cinematic mindgame between Bahari and his interrogator. Stewart did engineer, however, a nice twist when Bahari steers the interrogation towards that critical espionage subject: sex in the West.
"Stewart has said that he feels partly responsible for Bahari's troubles," wrote David Denby, in the New Yorker (11/24/14), and "the movie is an attempt at 'atonement'"— a noble gesture, to be sure, but oddly paralleling pity screwing and not the best reason to make a film.
Stewart also defended, on air and in print, Bassem Youssef, a Cairene doctor-cum-comedian whose style and show was modeled on Stewart and the "Daily Show". After death threats and the show's cancellation by the new repressive Egyptian government, Youssef retreated to private life but the "Daily Show" was unbowed and continues to be incredibly influential.
Denby heralds the film, saying "(o)nce Bahari is in prison...'Rosewater' comes to creative life," but backhandedly dismisses it as a "a satirist's impassioned bid to promote global sanity."
Is that the satirist's job? Perhaps what we need is insanity, a satire so absurd it shakes the prison guards to their very synapses, a la "Borat", by Sacha Baron Cohen (2006) or Mel Brooks's "The Producers" (1968, the original, 2001, the musical 2001, the remake, 2005), both Jews like Stewart—perhaps not coincidentally.
The official Iranian press dismissed "Rosewater" as Stewart kowtowing to his "Zionist masters," causing him to quip, rather genteelly: "“The suggestion is that the CIA and Zionist lobby funded this… I guess I’m still waiting for the money.”
Stewart has also been attacked by right-wing Jews for his scathing skewers of Israel, although, generally speaking, Jews get satire.
The original "The Producers" was overacted and almost an homage to Yiddish theater but the writing was a crazed camp masterpiece, with Hitler an aficionado of song and dance, a satirical triumph 23 years after Auschwitz.
"Borat", for its part, featured satire so sharp many Western viewers didn't even feel it slicing, although viewers around the world certainly did.
Indeed, it's easy to imagine a discussion at Tehran's Evian Prison, where Bahari was held, after a couple of officials sneaked a peak at—or were assigned to view—"Borat".
"Mahmoud, isn't this 'Borat' hysterical—those Jews are so stupid!" "Ali, you idiot, 'Borat' is made by a Jew and he's making fun of you!"
Considering religion, politics and military might has stalemated across the Middle East, the last hope lies in the 20th century church: media arts. It is there we have to tell a story so poignant and wrenching or ridiculous and hysterical it tears some Middle Eastern sacred cows a new digestive tract orifice.
As fabulous as heart-felt romanticism or well-turned tragedy may be, Stewart is better equipped, with the help of Bahari, Youssef and other insightful artists (credit which he always allocates very generously), to tell a sharp-tongued or tongue-in-cheek farce that would light a fuse on a few missiles full of ideas, presumably with a simultaneous release in Farsi.
Doniphan Blair is a writer, film magazine publisher, designer and filmmaker ('Our Holocaust Vacation'), who can be reached .Posted on Dec 01, 2014 - 12:16 AM