'Rosewater' Redefines Journalism

For 118 days, Maziar Bahari’s closest relationship was with a man whose name he didn’t know and whose only distinguishing feature was the scent of rose water that emanated when he entered a room. This man, who Bahari referred to as Rosewater, was his torturer.

A journalist for Newsweek at the time, Bahari was arrested after filming the 2009 Iranian elections and the subsequent protests. Iranian officials accused Bahari of being a spy based on his comments in a mock interview he did for “The Daily Show”; however, his arrest was surely influenced by his election involvement. During his imprisonment, he was kept in solitary confinement and forced to wear a blindfold. Bahari was eventually released due to media attention and the advocacy of international leaders.

Bahari wrote a memoir of his experience entitled “Then They Came for Me,” and on Nov. 14, the film version, “Rosewater,” will be released.

“The film is an adaptation of the book which was an adaption of a life,” Bahari said. Rather than focusing on a realistic depiction of Bahari’s experience, the film is about life and democracy in Iran and the changing nature of journalism.

For a man who endured almost four months of torture and interrogation in an Iranian prison, Bahari is able to see his experience as an example and as a force for change. “[‘Rosewater’] is really a film about hope; it’s a film about resilience. It’s a film about the power of journalism; it’s about family, culture,” Bahari said with anything but a pessimistic attitude.

“Rosewater” is the directorial debut for Jon Stewart, who also wrote the film. The film stars Gael García Bernal as Bahari and Kim Bodnia as Rosewater.

For Stewart, a film about an abusive government seems like a departure from his TV persona. But the journalist once called “the most trusted man in America” used his experience on “The Daily Show” to incorporate comedic elements in the film (also present in the memoir) that add both humor and make the characters more relatable and complex.

An example of one of these comedic moments in the midst of interrogation sessions is Rosewater’s fascination with topics such as New Jersey and sexual norms in America. He asks if “The Sopranos” is porn, and Bahari convinces him that Fort Lee, N.J. is a “massage playground.”

Stewart also used his entertainment skills during the film’s difficult shoot in Jordan. “It was during Ramadan, we didn’t have that much money, it was really hot, the production company that they were working with was not very transparent with their employees,” Bahari said. “And Jon has to just humor them; he had to entertain them by being Jon Stewart. He learned a few words of Arabic, and he had to do basically stand-up, in Arabic.”

But all kidding aside, “Rosewater” deals with issues that are both very difficult to watch and disturbingly relevant today.

While the torture and interrogation shown in “Rosewater” is less severe than what actually occurred, the depiction of Iran is anything but flattering. Officials are portrayed as rule-abiding and ruthless, and the Iranian people (and their opinions) are just pawns in a national game for power. “What you see in this film is an everyday reality in Iran, in China, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Russia,” Bahari said.  According to him, authoritarian regimes institutionalize torture and interrogations. His experience is no anomaly, but rather the fate for so many in Iran who choose to take a position opposing the government.

Gael García Bernal plays Maziar Bahari in "Rosewater." By Courtesy of Open Road

Bahari was lucky and received worldwide media attention and the support of leaders such as Hillary Clinton, which eventually led to his release. But many others are not so fortunate. Two members of Bahari’s own family were imprisoned in Iran for their political views—his father under the Shah and his sister under Ayatollah Khomeini (it is actually the voice of his father that sustains Bahari through his imprisonment in the film.) This kind of brutal treatment in countries such as Iran doesn’t make the news for every victim, and most stories don’t end in a prisoner’s release.

Bahari also hopes the film acts as a commentary on reporting in an era of social media and instant communication. “[The film is] about the changing nature of journalism, that professional journalism is somehow in decline because the citizen journalism is on the rise. Citizen journalists are becoming much more powerful than professional journalists,” Bahari said.

In a previous era, journalists were symbolized by a pad of paper and a pencil. Today, anyone with a smartphone can be a journalist. Revolutions are spread through social media and information is available to anyone who can access the internet. News is now a constantly updating cycle. This development both revolutionizes the scope of information and the power of the individual to act as reporter. However, it also puts people in authoritarian countries at risk of doing something as simple as pressing “record.”

Bahari was captured on the basis of his camera. While his interrogators claimed his arrest was based on his work as a “spy” (according to “The Daily Show” interview), Bahari was taken by the police only after he had released footage of protests following the 2009 elections that damaged the image of the Iranian government.

His release from prison wasn’t just a victory; for Bahari, it was the beginning of a challenge to achieve rights for journalists and citizens in Iran. “The film is telling a universal truth,” Bahari said. The challenge is to change this truth.

—Contributing writer Basia Rosenbaum can be reached at brosenbaum@college.harvard.edu.