TOUCHY leaders in Iran have slammed Oscar-winning Argo, branding it propaganda
for the CIA.
Officials were angered further on Sunday night when the US First Lady Michelle
Obama announced the Best Movie gong via live video link from the White
House.
The film, which recounts the 1979-81 US hostage crisis in Tehran, was
denounced as “an advertisement for the CIA” by state TV.
Iran’s culture minister Mohammad Hosseini said Hollywood had “distorted
history” as part of a “soft war” of cultural influence against his country.
Another news outlet there called the Oscar “politically motivated” due to the
involvement of the US President’s wife in the presentation.
After Mrs Obama announced the award, director and star Ben Affleck gushed
through an emotional acceptance speech, paying tribute to the “genius”
of Steven Spielberg whose film, Lincoln, was one of the ones that lost out.
He also used the speech to “thank our friends in Iran living in terrible
circumstances right now”.
While Argo was banned from Iranian cinemas, there is a healthy trade in
bootlegged copies on the streets of Tehran, with DVDs selling for less than
a dollar each.
Last week, film censor Mehdi Tondro – a self-described “specialist in
anti-Iranian and anti-Islamic films” – slammed the film’s scenes of angry
Iranians storming the gates of the American Embassy in Tehran.
He fumed: “We Iranians look stupid, backward and simple-minded in this movie.
“Hollywood is not a normal industry – it’s a conspiracy by capitalism and
Zionism. We need to come up with an answer to this and other films.”
While Iranians who took part in the 1979 Islamic Revolution have criticised
the Affleck flick, the younger generation has been more open to it.
Shieda, a 21-year-old University of Tehran student, said: “I want to know what
the other side is saying.”
Retired teacher Reza Abbasi, who witnessed the Revolution first-hand, said: “I
know Hollywood usually changes reality to make it attractive for movie
lovers, but more or less it was close to the realities then.”
But Tehran City Council member Masoomeh Ebtekar – who was among students who
occupied the US Embassy and acted as the Iranian students’ spokeswoman –
says the film exaggerates the violence among crowds that stormed the
compound in November 1979.