Watched: Rosewater (2014).
There are parts of this that feel slightly less nuanced than you’d hope - Jon Stewart, it seems, would love the world to think that filming injustice will always pave the way to eradicating it, and I’m not convinced that’s entirely true - but overall this is an incredible film. In a sense, it feels like two films taking place in the same universe - there’s Maziar Bahari (Gael García Bernal, playing the role with humor and depth and brilliance) before his incarceration as he tracks the disputed 2009 Iranian election, and another depiction of him during his time in prison for (among other absurd charges) the supposed crime of foreign espionage. It’s the second part that carries the power as it tightens the focus - Kim Bodnia’s desperate, often-ridiculous and always-terrifying interrogator (whose nickname carries the film’s title) is electric whenever he’s on-screen, and demonstrates the depths someone will sink to in order to get a confession.
It’s curious that the film ends up being about something other than political ideology; instead, it looks like a portrayal of how corrupt governments will do almost anything to appear as if they have everything under control. Javadi, the interrogator, almost looks as if he’s preparing for a scene when we see him in the moments before entering Bahari’s cell, and it’s made clear that his handling of Bahari’s case will be the deciding factor in an upcoming opportunity for promotion. When providence finally comes for Bahari, then, it’s so much more of a relief - we figure out early on that his release is more dependent on his political value than of the nature of his so-called criminal activity, but as time goes by and we learn no wider context, we feel him lose hope, only to get it back again after a slipped comment by a guard betrays quite how much outside forces are trying to get him out.
Ultimately, it makes for a wonderful film - a political piece, sure, but also a compelling character study with Stewart’s characteristic satirical bite. If I’m right, it just came out in the UK, so if you’re there you should seek it out while you can.