Jon Stewart is a lot of things -- smart, funny, a s**t-disturber -- and now we can add another thing to the list: feature-film director.
His directorial debut, "Rosewater," is, of course, heavy material. Based on the memoir "Then They Came for Me" by Maziar Bahari and Aimee Molloy, it follows the real-life story of Bahari, who was arrested in Iran after appearing on Stewart's "The Daily Show" in a satirical interview. After Iranian authorities viewed the brief interview, they interpreted it as Bahari being in communication with an American spy.
Bahari was detained for 118 days in Iranian prison, and endured long hours of torture and deprivation. Played by Gael Garcia Bernal in "Rosewater," main character Bahari provides a harrowing and eyeopening look at the oppressive regimes in power in the Middle East.
Moviefone Canada spoke with Stewart and Bahari at the Toronto Film Festival.
Moviefone Canada: This is an incredible story. Can you talk a little bit about translating this to screen and some of the challenges you may have faced?
Jon Stewart: The way Maziar reclaimed his humanity under this circumstance ... he used humour and absurdity. We wanted to be able to draw on his cultural background and family background. The whole idea of solitary confinement is to deprive you of your senses. Trying to bring in all of those elements, to communicate the intensity of the experience, those were some of the challenges. We didn't want absurdity to turn into farce, or diminish his experience by leaning too heavily on that.
How important are political satirists for getting the word out about situations like this?
Maziar Bahari: The book is a reflection of the reality. The film is a translation of the book. The reality of the authoritarian regime is that they are funny. Whenever you think you can control everyone, you can't control everyone forever and you can't create a perfect society. That's a funny delusion. That lends itself to satire. That's why Jon is successful with young people; they don't have the dogmas that the older generation have. He looks at the situation in a real way -- what's happening, what politicians are talking about. All these regimes think they can create their own perfect societies.
JS: Or their own realities.
How did "The Daily Show" prepare you for directing this film?
JS: It's still content generation, to a large extent. While what we do at the show is a lot more ephemeral, you're still calling upon a variety of collaborators and departments to translate intention into something that people are going to view. TV is still a visual medium, even though it doesn't have the possibilities of film. It doesn't have the visual and sensorial effects of that.
But you're really at home with this type of content. Plus you have a connection with the story...
JS: Yes, and the source material. The source material of what we do on the show is generally reality. The source material of this was the narrative of his reality. One of the wonderful things that he was able to do, and perhaps a lesson to the regimes, is to not incarcerate journalists. They remember shit. [Laughs] They are trained as far as detail, absurdity, analysis, commentary ... it is his ability to translate that experience into something relatable that makes the story so powerful.
MB: Even inside prison, when sometimes my interrogator was saying something interesting, stupid or moronic, it was painful of course, but I was thinking, "I'll remember this, I'll remember this." [Laughs]
What was it like reliving this experience?
MB: I didn't relive it; as a journalist, we put a distance between ourselves and what's happening right in front of us. That said, some scenes in the film are still uncomfortable to watch. I well up when I see certain scenes. Many of my friends and colleagues back in Iran and all around the world are living that experience right now, and I'm more worried about them.
Was this project at all driven by a feeling or guilt and/or responsibility?
JS: Guilt is obviously a powerful motivator for my people. Guilt is not a sustainable emotion when carrying through a project, and it's certainly one that would be corrosive to the process of telling a story. The guilt was immediate and almost instantly disabused by Maziar, by his family ... one of the most beautiful American traits is narcissism. We believe our actions are incredibly powerful and control it all -- for every American action, there is a ridiculously unequal and opposite reaction. So yeah, there was that moment where I was like "The power of the 'Daily Show' got three men arrested! I must make this right!" But it was very clear that this was a huge crackdown by an authoritarian regime.
Did you ever think of making this as a documentary instead of a feature film?
JS: No. I'm much more comfortable with narrative than I am with doing a documentary.
MB: What we discussed initially was making the film in Persian. I was the one who insisted that it should be in English.
"Rosewater" opens in theatres on November 14.
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