Rosewater

Jon Stewart

Overview

Jon Stewart makes his directorial debut with Rosewater, a drama based on a memoir by the Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari. As the film opens, Bahari returns to his home country in order to report on the 2009 presidential elections there. When the results lead to large public protests, Bahari (Gael Garc?a Bernal) videotapes the civil unrest. This brings him to the attention of authorities, who apprehend him and keep him in solitary confinement in hopes of getting him to confess to crimes against Iran. However, his international celebrity leads to help from powerful and unexpected places. Rosewater screened at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

Product Details

Release Date:	02/10/2015
UPC:	0025192269813
Original Release:	2014
Rating:	R
Source:	STUDIO DISTRIBUTION SERVS LLC
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:44:00
Sales rank:	49,525

Special Features

Iran's controversial election; The story of Maziar Bahari; Real spies have TV shows; What happens in New Jersey...; A director's Perspective

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Gael García Bernal	Maziar Bahari
Kim Bodnia	Rosewater
Haluk Bilginer	Baba Akbar
Shohreh Aghdashloo	Moloojoon
Golshifteh Farahani	Maryam
Claire Foy	Paola
Dimitri Leonidas	Davood
Amir El-Masry	Alireza
Nasser Faris	Haj Agha
Kambiz Hosseini	Hassan
Hamid Masri	Admission Guard #1
Numan Acar	Rahim
Ayman Sharaiha	Blue-Eyed Seyyed
Ali Elayan	Channel One State TV Interviewer
Zeid Kattan	Seyyed
Nidal Ali	Prison Soundsman
Alex Claus	Prison Barber
Firas Fanni	Another Prisoner
Alaadin Khasawneh	Prison Guard
Wissam Tobaileh	Admission Guard #2
Amir Rahimzadeh	Abdul
Manar Mughrabi	Female Agent
Arian Moayed	Hamid
Mohammed Abdel Raheem	Cyrus
Manaf Irani	Avid Debate Watcher
Mohammad Sami	Teenage Boy
Miles Jupp	Maziar's Producer
Andrew Gower	Jimmy the Avid Editor
Lindsey Hilsum	Herself
Edward Ward	Field Producer
Jason Jones	Himself
Jonathan Hopper	Young Rosewater
Bassam Hanna	Rosewater's Father
Nafisa Ghazi	Rosewater's Mother
Hassan Sha'er	1980 Prison Warden
Ahmad Massad	Tavab
Hamza Muhaisen	Young Maziar
Ali Hussein	Maziar's Newborn Daughter
Saro Karaoghlanian	Maziar's Friend
Hannah Douglas	Flight Attendant
Eyad Zoubi	Shah's Guard
Saif Goussous	Polling Station Policeman
Drama	Actor
Gael Garcia Bernal	Actor
Howard Shore	Composer

Technical Credits

Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart	Director,Screenwriter,Producer
Scott Rudin	Producer
Gigi Pritzker	Producer
Chris McShane	Executive Producer
Lila Yacoub	Executive Producer
Eli Bush	Executive Producer,Producer
Debra Zane	Casting
Jina Jay	Casting
David Stragmeister	Camera Operator
Fuad Khalil	Production Manager
Peter Pedrero	Stunts
Manny Siverio	Stunts
Kim Bodnia	Director
Shohreh Aghdashloo	Director
Gael García Bernal	Director
Dimitri Leonidas	Director
Golshifteh Farahani	Director
Claire Foy	Director

Editorial Reviews

Leave it to this generation's most respected political and media satirist, The Daily Show host Jon Stewart, to fashion a debut film that manages to be both humorous and a very serious examination of the grim realities Iranians face under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Adapted by Stewart from Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari's memoir (Then They Came for Me: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival), Rosewater stars Gael Garcia Bernal as Bahari, a Newsweek reporter who returns to his homeland in 2009 to cover the Iranian presidential election. After interviewing supporters of Ahmadinejad's challenger and capturing video footage of large protests against the results of the election, Bahari is taken into custody by Iranian authorities and kept in solitary confinement for months. During that time, he is interrogated by officials who are convinced he is working as a spy -- they use as proof an appearance Bahari made on The Daily Show in which he was interviewed by Jason Jones, who was playing the program's "Senior Espionage Correspondent." As his captors attempt to break him psychologically, Bahari clings to memories of his strong-willed father, who was also held captive by a previous regime, as well as the loving sister who first introduced him to Western cinema and music. On paper, Rosewater sounds like high-fiber filmmaking. After all, asking people to watch the torture of an innocent man sounds like the exact opposite of a good time at the movies. But Stewart is a skilled entertainer, one understands how to satisfy an audience while still accomplishing what he set out to do. He was a highly regarded standup comic before taking over The Daily Show and turning it into the institution it is today, and he peppers Rosewater with laughs that acknowledge the Orwellian ridiculousness of Bahari's situation without ever diminishing its severity. There's a sequence late in the picture in which an exhausted Bahari turns the tables on his brutal interrogator by titillating him with made-up stories about exotic massage parlors. This scene best exemplifies the first-time director's ability to maintain a singular tone, and offers proof that, if he chooses to continue his career as a moviemaker, Stewart could easily develop a unique voice in the history of comedy cinema. Stewart shows a facility for various aspects of the filmmaking process here. He elicits strong performances from all of his actors, particularly Bernal: He's in practically every scene, and his expressive eyes make such an impression in the first act that it still feels like we can see them when he spends long periods of time wearing a blindfold. Stewart also gets great work from cinematographer Bobby Bukowski; together, they keep the picture from ever growing visually static, which is impressive since the majority of the action at the prison takes place in either the interrogation room or Bahari's cell. This is an auspicious debut that stands as one of the most humanistic cinematic statements of the post-9/11 era. Since The Daily Show's comedy typically boils down to exposing how the weak are screwed over by the powerful, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Stewart has made a movie about the ability of the individual to stand up to oppression. Rosewater is inarguably the greatest movie ever directed by a late-night talk-show host -- and that's unlikely to change anytime soon, unless Stewart decides to make another one.