Cinema Rex - Iranian Cinema Podcast
Jul 23, 2026 · 52 min · 12 segments
Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari is detained by Iranian forces who brutally interrogate him under suspicion that he is a spy. Written and Directed by Jon Stewart
Kaveh MohebbiHost
Faran MoradiHost
Rosewater is based on the true story of Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, who returned to Iran to cover the disputed 2009 presidential election.
After filming the mass protest that erupted in its aftermath, Bahari was arrested and spent 118 days in Tehran's Evin Prison where he was blindfolded, interrogated, and tortured by an intelligence officer he knew only by the scent of his rosewater cologne.
In a surreal twist, part of the case against him stemmed from a satirical interview he had previously done on The Daily Show, which Iranian authorities presented as evidence that he was an American spy.
So I ask you, Faran June, capital F, capital J, what did you think of Jon Stewart's Rosewater?
Uh, it's a story that's worth exploring and, and sharing with people, but- There were...
Weirdly, it felt like the movie didn't really have, like, a consistent framework to the movie.
Like, there were lots of different stylistic decisions made in the movie, but I found that those stylistic decisions were, like, not cohesive between each other, if that makes sense.
To give an example, when the movie starts, there's this, like, montage with poetry, and it's very, like, melancholic and thoughtful and all this stuff.
Rosewater is based on the true story of Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, who returned to Iran to cover the disputed 2009 presidential election.
After filming the mass protest that erupted in its aftermath, Bahari was arrested and spent 118 days in Tehran's Evin Prison where he was blindfolded, interrogated, and tortured by an intelligence officer he knew only by the scent of his rosewater cologne.
In a surreal twist, part of the case against him stemmed from a satirical interview he had previously done on The Daily Show, which Iranian authorities presented as evidence that he was an American spy.
So I ask you, Faran June, capital F, capital J, what did you think of Jon Stewart's Rosewater?
Uh, it's a story that's worth exploring and, and sharing with people, but- There were...
Weirdly, it felt like the movie didn't really have, like, a consistent framework to the movie.
Like, there were lots of different stylistic decisions made in the movie, but I found that those stylistic decisions were, like, not cohesive between each other, if that makes sense.
To give an example, when the movie starts, there's this, like, montage with poetry, and it's very, like, melancholic and thoughtful and all this stuff.
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