Rosewater, film review: Jon Stewart's debut feature sees the humour in warped logic

(15) Jon Stewart, 103 mins. Starring: Gael García Bernal, Kim Bodnia, Claire Foy

Jon Stewart's debut feature Rosewater

The comedian and Daily Show presenter Jon Stewart's debut feature as director dramatises the story of London-based documentary maker and journalist Maziar Bahari's arrest and imprisonment in Iran in 2009.

Bahari (engagingly played by Gael García Bernal) had gone to the country to cover the election but was arrested and accused of being a spy. The film is effective in capturing the mood of optimism and defiance among opposition leader Mousavi's supporters during the run-up to the election.

After the arrest, the storytelling becomes more grim but Stewart never loses his sense of satire. There is the absurdity of the Iranian authorities regarding old Pasolini films and episodes of The Sopranos as pornography. Stewart even sees the humour in the warped logic used to justify imprisoning Bahari.

The depiction of his torturer (played by the Danish actor Kim Bodnia, star of Pusher) is also subtle. He is not so much a monster as a repressed functionary with strange fantasies about massage parlours in New Jersey.