It’s been announced that ROSEWATER has set for a US release date via Open Road Films, written for the screen and directed by Jon Stewart, will be in select Stateside cinemas from November 7th.
I’m a big fan of Jon Stewart on The Daily Show but also very aware of how close he is to the project, as they covered Maziar Bahari’s saga nightly and had the BBC journalist appear on the show to talk about his ordeal once he was released from prison.
ROSEWATER is based on the New York Times best-selling book Then They Came for Me: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival written by Bahari. It’s a true story that not only marks the screenwriting and directorial debut of Jon Stewart, but also stars Gael Garcia Bernal who leads an international cast.
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.
In October 2009, with Bahari’s wife leading an international campaign from London to have her husband freed, and Western media outlets including The Daily Show with Jon Stewart continuing to keep the story alive, Iranian authorities released Bahari on $300,000 bail and the promise he would act as a spy for the government.
We’ll await more international release details and share once we hear for this intriguing movie.
