Jon Stewart is making his feature directorial debut with Rosewater starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Open Road has just announced a November 7 release date following the film’s Canadian premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.
Above is the first look at Bernal in the film where he plays Tehran-born Bahari, a 42-year-old broadcast journalist with Canadian citizenship living in London. In June 2009, Bahari returned to Iran to interview Mir-Hossein Moussavi, who was the prime challenger to controversial incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. As Moussavi’s supporters rose up to protest Ahmadinejad’s victory declaration hours before the polls closed on election day, Bahari endured great personal risk by submitting camera footage of the unfolding street riots to the BBC. Bahari was soon arrested by Revolutionary Guard police, led by a man identifying himself only as “Rosewater,” who proceeded to torture and interrogate the journalist over the next 118 days.
Rosewater is one of my “must sees” at TIFF this year, here’s top hoping scheduling works in my favor.
Just below is one more picture from the set.
