I’ve been a fan of Jon Stewart since 2002’s Death to Smoochy, and his work on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show got me through 2004-2008. He’s absolutely hilarious, and while he’s gotten serious on occasion on his satiric news show, this is the most pensive I’ve ever seen him after seeing these images for his upcoming movie, Open Road Films’ Rosewater. And it’s not surprising considering how close to home and personal the movie is.
Synopsis:
The feature film ROSEWATER is based on the New York Times best-selling memoir “Then They Came for Me: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival,” written by the BBC journalist Maziar Bahari. A true story, the film marks the screenwriting and directorial debut of The Daily Show host and anchor Jon Stewart, and stars Gael Garcia Bernal, leading an international cast. ROSEWATER is produced by Scott Rudin, Stewart, and Gigi Pritzker, with Lila Yacoub, Eli Bush and Chris McShane serving as executive producers.
ROSEWATER follows the Tehran-born Bahari, a 42-year-old broadcast journalist with Canadian citizenship living in London. In June 2009, Bahari returned to Iran to interview Mir-Hossein Moussavi, who was the prime challenger to controversial incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. As Moussavi’s supporters rose up to protest Ahmadinejad’s victory declaration hours before the polls closed on election day, Bahari endured great personal risk by submitting camera footage of the unfolding street riots to the BBC. Bahari was soon arrested by Revolutionary Guard police, led by a man identifying himself only as “Rosewater,” who proceeded to torture and interrogate the journalist over the next 118 days.
The film will get a limited released and will debut on November 7th, 2014.