TEHRAN A tough week forBen Affleckjust got tougher.First, he was snubbed in the Oscar nominations on Thursday, overlooked in the best director race for Argo, his film about theCentral Intelligence Agencys extraction of six American diplomats from revolutionary Tehran. Now, news reports from Tehran say the Iranian government is planning to finance a movie that will correct what it says are numerous distortions of the historical record in Argo.
Not much is known about the proposed movie, other than its title, The General Staff, and its director, Ataollah Salmanian, a minor figure inIrans cinema industry. But it is a sure bet that it will center on the official Iranian view of the 1979 hostage crisis, in which 52 American diplomats were held by Islamic students for 444 days.
Following its release in October, Argo was condemned by Iranian officials as anti-Iranian. One former hostage taker, Abbas Abdi, after seeing the movie,said thathe and his comrades would always be seen as bad guys in the United States. Others in Iran accused Mr. Affleck of promoting Islamophobia.
Certainly, the director, Mr. Salmanian, sees his task in those terms. This film, which will be a huge production, should be an appropriate answer to the film Argo, which lacks a proper view of historical events, he told the semiofficial Mehr news agency this week. He has also written the screenplay for the movie, which, according to The Tehran Times newspaper, will be paid for by the Iranian governments Art Bureau.
Word of Tehrans cinematic plans was a surprise to Kenneth Taylor, the Canadian ambassador to Iran at the time, who sheltered the six Americans for three months and has commended Mr. Affleck and the film, in which he is played by Victor Garber.
Im not sure what the Iranians found wrong, he said in a telephone interview. It will be amusing to see what they take issue with. I think the Iranians know the true story of the Canadian involvement.
Irans leaders, who in recent years have started several foreign-language satellite channels to spread their ideology of political Islam, seem keen to get into the influential English-language movie industry. In February, Sean Stone, Oliver Stones son, was invited to visit Iran, where he is now rumored to be making a movie with the help of the Iranian authorities.
Nevertheless, it is independently made Iranian films that have attracted foreign acclaim, with A Separation, by Asghar Farhadi claiming the Oscar for best foreign-language film in 2012.
Last year the authorities closed down Irans main film directors union, The House of Cinema, accusing its members of having relations with foreign-based opposition channels.
That has not kept controversial films out of Iranian cinema, however the movie I Am Mother showed people drinking alcohol and women without their obligatory head scarves, prompting protests from conservatives.
By The New York Times
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