Rosewater - Interview with Gael Garcia Bernal

Gael Garcia Bernal in, Rosewater

Rosewater is a powerful drama written and directed by The Daily Show's Jon Stewart, based on the memoir Then They Came for Me by Maziar Bahari and Aimee Molloy.  In 2009, London-based Canadian-Iranian Newsweek reporter Bahari (played by Gael Garcia Bernal) was detained in Iran for more than 100 days because of an interview with The Daily Show's Jason Jones regarding the country's presidential election. Jones, pretending to be a spy, demanded to know why Iran was evil. Somehow the joke was lost on the Iranian regime, which arrested Bahari four days after the episode aired, claiming that the bit proved that Bahari was himself a spy.  Bahari was arrested and, while his pregnant fiancée waited for him, spent four months in prison in solitary confinement  being brutally interrogated. Bahari was usually blindfolded when being interrogated, and the sole distinguishing feature of his interrogator was that the interrogator smelled of rosewater. 

Gael Garcia Bernal does a brilliant job of portraying Bahari's plight and not only had Bahari's support through out the filming but his total cooperation and input.

I spoke with Gael Garcia Bernal during the Toronto International Film Festival about taking on such a daunting role, working with Jon Stewart and what he has coming up next. Please click the link below: 

Rosewater opens in the following markets on November 14th - Toronto, Oakville, Richmond Hill, Scarborough, Whitby, Vancouver, Victoria, Coquitlam, Langley, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg , November 28th Ottawa, Guelph, Waterloo and on December 5th in Halifax.