Iranian-born Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari was imprisoned, interrogated and tortured on spy charges for 118 days after covering the 2009 Iranian election.
Written and directed by Jon Stewart — yes, the host of The Daily Show, making his directorial debut — Rosewater tells the story of Bahari’s ordeal, which he also recounted in his 2011 memoir Then They Came for Me.
Mexican actor Gael García Bernal plays Bahari, who in real life landed in hot water with the Iranian authorities partly because of a mock interview he did on Stewart’s show back in 2009. That segment was later used against him as evidence of seditious activity.
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