Jon Stewart to direct alum's tale of imprisonment
Jon Stewart will temporarily step away from his hosting duties on the satirical Daily Show to produce and direct a movie out of his comedic comfort zone. The film, titled Rosewater, will depict Concordia alumnus Maziar Bahari’s wrongful and brutal imprisonment in Iran in 2009.
The Iranian-born journalist, filmmaker and human rights activist earned a BA in Communication Studies from Concordia in 1993.
Bahari was covering the country’s presidential elections for Newsweek magazine when he was accused of being a spy and was thrown into Evin Prison. He turned the ordeal into a book, Then They Came for Me: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival (Random House, 2011), co-written by Aimee Molloy.
Before being jailed, Bahari was interviewed in Iran by Daily Show correspondent Jason Jones. Soon after, he was falsely accused of 11 counts of espionage, imprisoned for 118 days and tortured. He delivered a forced confession on Iranian television.
Bahari was finally released on $300,000 bail and allowed to return to London, where his daughter had just been born. After his discharge, he launched a campaign in support of other jailed journalists in Iran. Bahari continues to be Newsweek’s Iran correspondent.
Stewart will take a hiatus during the summer to work on the film, which he also wrote. The movie’s title, Rosewater, was the name of Bahari’s anonymous, ruthless interrogator.
Related links
• CTV News
• Burundi Voices
• Then They Came for Me