Team Oscar Praises Film, Women’s Rights in Iran
by John T. Simpson
In a recent interview in Iran with the Hollywood Reporter (THR), AMPAS President Sid Ganis and actress Annette Bening made the following comments on the state of Iranian film culture and women’s rights today.
First up, Mr. Ganis:
It is as buoyant as it is. They are making movies all the time, though they are not distributing them necessarily in Iran, but around Europe, Asia, and winning prizes all the time for it.
If by buoyant Mr. Ganis meant uplifting, I agree. Nothing’s more uplifting than a truck bomb. In fact, Martyrdom Productions, the Iranian Thugocracy’s film arm, recently landed a $500,000,000.00 defamation lawsuit from Anwar Sadat’s family for its killer thriller “Assassination Of A Pharaoh,” depicting the Hero Martyr Khalid Islambouli, who assassinated former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1979 for the heinous crime of signing the Camp David Peace Accords with Israel in 1978.
The film also sent the rest of Egypt outside of Sadat’s immediate family into an apoplectic fury. Now THAT’S what I call Boffo Box Office! The Iranian government, which regulates who lives and who dies in Iran on top of everything else, denied complicity in the film.
However, Egyptian skepticism seems justified by the fact that the Iranian Thugocracy has named a street in Tehran after Mr. Islambouli. Second, the blockbuster Blood Carpet premiere of “Assassination of a Pharaoh” took place during Iran’s Thugocracy-sponsored “Committee for Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement in Iran” film festival.
Hmm. Curious. Personally, I think the Egyptians have reasons to be skeptical.
As for distribution successes, we can’t leave out Iran’s ‘booming’ child martyrdom cartoon export industry, which has become a most profitable Processed Stooge Film Product by Iran’s Martyrdom Productions. The BBC summed all that up with the Joker-like title of their report: “Iran’s Booming Animation Industry.”
Shia clerics in their robes and turbans are depicted in a series for children about the lives of the martyrs of the Islamic revolution. The cartoon Martyr Bahonar, for example, tells the story of a future prime minister growing up as a little boy, studying the Koran and becoming a cleric before he is killed in a bomb blast after the Revolution.
There is also a film called Ashurian, which tells the story of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, who is revered by Shia Muslims. Another cartoon, Children of al-Rashid, projects Iran’s view of the Palestinian struggle. It shows a fat Israeli military commander with an obsequious Arab informer talking about calling children in for questioning.
It gets better. Or worse, depending on your POV. A Google search of Iran TV children martyrdom cartoons returned 12,400 hits, if you’ll pardon the pun. They’re as common on Iran TV stations as SpongeBob is here. When they’re not playing US president-stabbing puppet shows, that is. Don’t worry, folks. The Bush puppet got his. Obama’s turn soon. See, to Iran’s Thugocracy, the Great Satan is just under new management. Kind of like Obama replacing Bush as Overlord of Hell.
Surprised? I’m not. They’ve been like this to us for thirty years! See, that’s what dictatorships like extremist Iran’s Thugocracy do. They externalize their own evils onto their enemies. Hitler did the same thing. Make us look so bad that they look good, no matter what they do. It’s like a dictatorial personality trait.
So, Mr. Ganis did sum it all up quite accurately. Iran’s blockbuster film industry is booming. Especially the kids’ stuff. However, you won’t find Tom and Jerry, Harry Potter, Chicken Run or “POTC: Dead Man’s Chest” on Iran TV. They’re all Ziono-Hollywoodist conspiracies, you see. But child martyrdom cartoons? Oscar Gold!
Now, moving on to Ms. Bening’s presser with THR, and her praise of women’s freedoms in Iran:
“They have a lot of female directors and a lot of documentary female directors.“
Ms. Bening is also correct. Here’s one female Iranian filmmaker and documentarian, Mehrnoushe Solouki, who was thrown into Evin prison for the unforgivable crime of stumbling upon a mass grave. Ms. Solouki’s experience in the medieval torture chamber called Evin prison, where American citizen Roxana Saberi is currently being held hostage by the Iranians, left her with nightmares.
Then we have Iranian woman and filmmaker Tahmineh Milani, who was sentenced to death for her celluloid slander against the Iranian Thugocracy. Sound familiar? Only extreme domestic and international pressure saved those women’s lives. Dictators, like Hollywood A-listers, hate bad PR. Spoils their image.
Yet female Iranian-American filmmaker Esha Momeni’s fate has yet to be decided. Her celluloid slander was to to interview women’s’ rights activists on the streets of Tehran for her master’s thesis. Which brings us back to the astute Ms. Bening:
Women are functioning on all levels.
If she means Evin prison has more than one level, for sure! Other women have functioned for only short periods of time at ground level. Many others, however, have risen up to the rank of Thugocracy-sponsored sex slaves. As they say in Alcoholics Anonymous, “We seek progress, not perfection.”
Ms. Bening sees progress. I see a very long way to perfection. Oh well. At least they’re not stoning the sex slaves for screwing around. I mean, if they did that every time they knocked boots with ‘em, who would they have left for sex slaves? Even the Islamist Nazis of Iran can’t be THAT stupid!
Lastly, Ms. Bening wants to take ALL of the Iranian film stooges in the City of Screams to join ALL of Hollywood’s film stooges in the City of Dreams:
We want to facilitate all of the people in Iranian cinema coming to the US.
I suppose it would have been nice to have invited Hitler and Goebbels over for a tour of Disney, as well as tours of the “Wizard of Oz” and “Gone With The Wind” sets while still in production. Why not invite today’s film Nazis to DreamWorks and Pixar? Make those animated kids’ martyrdom cartoons really shine! They can even have Trey Parker and Matt Stone help with the prez-stabbing puppets!
How blackly ironic would THAT be?
No word as to whether Mr. Ganis or Ms. Bening expressed praise for Iran’s child executions, blogger murders, the ongoing Gay Holocaust or the colorful genocide parades in Tehran for Omar Bashir. Or if they’ve apologized for Hollywood’s celluloid slanders like “300″ and “The Wrestler.”
I’m sure their PR reps will fill us in on all that when the Invisible Press lobs all their softballs at ‘em. Speaking of which. To date, my bad PR insurgency against AMPAS over this abortion of a junket to today’s Third Reich has racked up over 3000 hits to date at Digital Journal! I’m also posting here at Breitbart’s Big Hollywood, as well.
I wonder if they’re feeling the heat, because the Team Oscar trip has completely disappeared off the map. Examples. The Google search Iran Bening Ganis only racked up 46 hits for the last week. The variants Iran “Team Oscar” racked up only 17 new hits for the past week, while Iran “Team Hollywood” has racked up only 4! This is HOLLYWOOD, people! PR capitol of the world!
And I’ve had to scour all this stuff for my OpEds on Team Oscar off the Middle East press! Team Oscar has disappeared from public existence even more than Roxana Saberi! All things considered, I’m glad I threw my screenwriting career away to go to war with AMPAS. Spending more than thirty seconds with any of those clueless stooges would have driven me completely batshite!
Hell, they’re doing that now from over 10,000 miles away! Sayin’ Goodbye To Hollywood.
And hello to Roxana Saberi. Never forget darling Roxana. She’s worth TEN Stooge Team Oscars!
Here’s the White House. Here’s the State Department. Here’s Congress.
Many kudos to NPR, ABC, the BBC and the CPJ for their 10,000+ signature petition and strong words. As opposed to the Invisible Press: the New York Times, CNN, FOX, NBC, CBS, and AP.
FREE ROXANA SABERI! NOW! LIKE RIGHT NOW!
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33 Comments
Jimmy Carter would like to welcome you with open arms, Iran film industry. Maybe he can pal around with the Ayatollah.
I think that burka has eaten away at Annette Bening's brain. What a clueless woman. http://the100mostannoyingthings.blogspot.com/
Maybe Obama can send a secret letter on the behalf of AMPAS saying how much we have in common and asking for greater dialogue. Forget about the journalist girl though, that's an internal matter and liberals don't interfere with other governments, especially such a well-respected bastion of democracy like Iran.
I forgot the actual links, was it that Iranian women like to get stoned or be stoned ? Maybe Annette was humming along to the song, "Everybody Must Get Stoned ". Useful idiots.
Hey! Mrs. Bening is a Peacemaker! Plus, she feels so pretty with that scarf draped around her lovely face.
I smell the engines of AF1 getting fired up ready to take fearless leader into Achmadinnerjackets mountain lair. After a light lunch of Iranian skunkfish, the two will tackle the tough issues – the Nobel Prize for Peace, the proper removal of warts, should Sean Penn be the ambassador? No mention of Roxanna much less nukes – as that would cause indigestion.
All I can say is thank God, Isreal has the tomcats on alert, and Benjamin is in charge.
This impropriety…is… truly vomitous.
So, what else can I do besides uselessly post on a blog about how I'm pissed off? I already left a kindly email (i.e., not a rant) @ AMPAS. Little Stevie Van Zandt? Where are you? Resurrect your Sun City passions, man!
This impropriety…is… truly vomitous.
So, what else can I do besides uselessly post on a blog about how I'm pissed off? I already left a kindly email (i.e., not a rant) @ AMPAS. Little Stevie Van Zandt? Where are you? Resurrect your Sun City passions, man!
I did hear about the journo chick on Fox, so they are reporting it. I think they could do much, much better, though. Send a copy of this to Glenn Beck! Heck, he likes to piss everyone off. Right up his alley. Send it to O'Reilly first, and tell him if he doesn't do a story on it, you will send it to Beck. That ought to get him moving.
I did hear about the journo chick on Fox, so they are reporting it. I think they could do much, much better, though. Send a copy of this to Glenn Beck! Heck, he likes to piss everyone off. Right up his alley. Send it to O'Reilly first, and tell him if he doesn't do a story on it, you will send it to Beck. That ought to get him moving.
I'm not going to get into the human rights issues here. I just want to note rthat Iran actually has produced at least one recent world-class filmmaker: Abbas Kiarostami. He could be one of the persons referenced by Bening, as his films have received quite a lot of acclaim and have won many awards.
And how has Iran responded to him? The Iranian government has refused to screen his movies in Iran for the past decade! (The US also behaved deplorably by refusing to grant him a visa to visit a film festival in the US.)
Iran is like the old Soviet Union: there are/were many brilliant, innovative, and well-regarded filmmakers coming from those countries (Eisenstein, Tarkovsky). The rest of the world appreciates them; their native regimes ban them while putting their weight behind propaganda.
I'm not going to get into the human rights issues here. I just want to note rthat Iran actually has produced at least one recent world-class filmmaker: Abbas Kiarostami. He could be one of the persons referenced by Bening, as his films have received quite a lot of acclaim and have won many awards.
And how has Iran responded to him? The Iranian government has refused to screen his movies in Iran for the past decade! (The US also behaved deplorably by refusing to grant him a visa to visit a film festival in the US.)
Iran is like the old Soviet Union: there are/were many brilliant, innovative, and well-regarded filmmakers coming from those countries (Eisenstein, Tarkovsky). The rest of the world appreciates them; their native regimes ban them while putting their weight behind propaganda.
OK. I just sent email to oreilly at foxnews …. Sounds like an choice ambush opportunity for Jesse Watters and his guerilla microphone. Would LOVE to see him ambush Annette at the Bev Hills Sprinkles cupcake shop… or Ask Alfre when as she walks out of the Pinkberry at Lincoln & Maxella in Marina del Rey.
Great article. Thanks for the info.
Now you're talking, Aint!
If we could get this this kind of info on ET and those other "news" shows, maybe people would finally wake up!
Look at Annette with her hair covered up. (Wonder how she'd look in a burqa). Interesting how these brave Hollywood "dissenters" kiss up to thugs and dictators (Castro, Chavez, the thugs in Iran) but "bravely" stand up to Pat Robertson and the Christian Right. I struggle mightily to understand these people, and all I can come up with is that they a) worship all things they consider exotic and b) want to be noticed and different. I was like that, too, once, but I was thirteen.
maybe the burkha is the new turtleneck, hides the wattles
Genius in the service of tyranny is evil. The only thing worse than bad movies supporting dictatorships is good movies supporting dictatorships. I acknowledge Eisenstein's brilliance, but I saw his films long after the Soviet Union had been exposed in the west for the murderous regime it was. But how many people saw his heroic movies contemporaneously with their production, and took a walk on the dark side? Since I have never seen a film by Kiarostami, I will simply say that if his films are brilliant and don't support the regime, he deserves praise. If his films are brilliant and do support the regime, he deserves condemnation.
Eisenstein eventually turned on the regime. Ivan the Terrible started out as a biographical picture and turned into an allegory about Stalin, who pulled the plug on it before Eisenstein could complete it. Tarkovsky, to my knowledge, never made anything supportive of the regime.
Elem Klimov made a brilliant, harrowing movie about WWII called Come and See that I'd recommend to anyone, regardless of their political persuasion. Is it supportive of the regime? I can't say. It's more about the Nazi actions in Belarus. It's not clear that there's a "good guy" in it.
There have actually been quite a few good Iranian movies in recent years, although my understanding is that the quality dried up after Khatami left office. I would say that none of the five or six I've seen take a position on the regime; the subjects regard human interactions, families, etc.
Eisenstein eventually turned on the regime. Ivan the Terrible started out as a biographical picture and turned into an allegory about Stalin, who pulled the plug on it before Eisenstein could complete it. Tarkovsky, to my knowledge, never made anything supportive of the regime.
Elem Klimov made a brilliant, harrowing movie about WWII called Come and See that I'd recommend to anyone, regardless of their political persuasion. Is it supportive of the regime? I can't say. It's more about the Nazi actions in Belarus. It's not clear that there's a "good guy" in it.
There have actually been quite a few good Iranian movies in recent years, although my understanding is that the quality dried up after Khatami left office. I would say that none of the five or six I've seen take a position on the regime; the subjects regard human interactions, families, etc.
Another great, disturbing post, John.
The most hallucinogenic element of the insanity which is the Muslim world is the obscenity of the concept of "martyr" in Islam.
Growing up through Catholic school we heard lots about martyrs. Some were fearless preachers like Stephen, Ignatius or Lawrence; some were brave soldiers like George, Mauritius or Sebastian; some were meek young women like Agnes, Philomena, or Lucy. The list was (and is) practically endless, and continues to grow to include 20th Century martyrs like Edith Stein and Maximillian Kolbe. What these people had in common was the courage when, confronted with the choice to deny their faith or die, to accept death.
Another thing they all have in common is that none of them are celebrated for killing anybody. The soldier-martyrs may have killed enemy combatants as part of their duties as soldiers, but none of their martyrdoms involved killing enemies of the faith.
Islamic "martydom" is entirely about killing infidels. Islamofascists profess belief in a Penthouse Forum version of Paradise as a reward for killing the enemies of Allah. they boast about being "in love with death," when in reality they are afraid of life.
One of the characteristics of modern liberals is the inability to make such obvious distinctions. AMPAS and Obama believe that they can reason with frothing maniacs like Admadinejad because they really can't get their tiny minds around the notion that his ultimate objectives are nothing like their own.
There are thousands today who are earning the martyrs crown in the Islamic world.; they are not the ones strapping on explosive belts.
Islamic "martydom" is entirely about killing infidels. Islamofascists profess belief in a Penthouse Forum version of Paradise as a reward for killing the enemies of Allah. they boast about being "in love with death," when in reality they are afraid of life.
One of the characteristics of modern liberals is the inability to make such obvious distinctions. AMPAS and Obama believe that they can reason with frothing maniacs like Admadinejad because they really can't get their tiny minds around the notion that his ultimate objectives are nothing like their own.
There are thousands today who are earning the martyrs crown in the Islamic world.; they are not the ones strapping on explosive belts.
Annette Bening makes me want to puke. That tramp is covered up like the Virgin Mary beaming her beatific smile on terrorists and thugs. It's a same she didn't do her "Bugsy" movie later in life since she's looking more like a rabbit every day. If those idiot women and men had been kidnapped, a top notch Special Forces team would have been sent into save them and not a one of them is worth it! If you love Iran so much – move over there, please! It would do my heart good never to see any of you again!
I was never sure whether Eisenstein turned against the regime, or vice versa, and exactly when, but "Ivan the Terrible" probably explained it. I should add that I have watched "Alexander Nevsky" at least a dozen times, and love it each time. And that includes the fact that I am fully aware of who the Teutonic Knights (my ancestors) stood in for in the allegory. I appreciate your recommendations, and I will see if I can locate a Tarkovsky or Klimov movie.
Did you happen to catch Obama's "Message to the Iranian People" by any chance? That in itself was enough to make me shake my head, I can only imagine what his speech will be like in Istanbul which is rumored to be the location of his promised speech in a Muslim capital. It could be worse though, my money was on Damascus for a while there with how many people went through Assad's door telling him that the US and Syria should be friends.
Netanyahu isn't quite in charge yet, since Israeli politics make US politics look sane and rational, but he's getting there. Expect to see a litany of wailing and gnashing of teeth from certain sectors of the Muslim (specifically Islamist) world pretty soon. Actually if Lieberman does get the Foreign Minister job expect to hear some of that wailing coming from the Obama administration too.
Iran, ironically enough, has the F-14 Tomcats, they took delivery of some before the Shah was deposed. They use them basically as a "poor man's AWACS" since they haven't gotten any spare parts or missiles for them for obviously reasons since 1979. Their chances of not becoming extinct if they ran into IAF F-15s and F-16s is about a snowball's chance in the hot place, which is sort of a shame because as a kid I always liked the F-14 ever since I'd seen "The Final Countdown."
I'd love to see the indomitable Jesse Watters put on this one for sure.
Congradulations John for putting a spotlight on these dispicable 'useful idiots.' There is a wealth of irony worth mining here for a creative remake on The Three Stooges – graphically illustrating in blatant political subtext what such 'missions' actually embrace – which is nothing short of cultural treason. As private citizens, Sid Ganis, Annette Benning and Alfre Woodard have every right to go bonkers while 'going native.' Just as the rest of us have every right to expose and reject their self-appointed 'cultural ambassadorships' by any means necessary – be it comedy or drama or old fashioned investigative reporting.
While what they do infuriates me, its most damaging and dangerous to captive Iranians at home and abroad. It's just yet further evidence that what the world needs now out of Hollywood is a lot more Sterling Hayden & George Stevens than WTF Ganis & crew. Keep the Klieg lights shiniing John, were just in Act I, scene II.
Klimov only made a handful of movies, and Come and See is the only one that's even somewhat available (also the only one I've seen, although I've heard that his take on the Rasputin story is good). The opening scene is rather uninviting, but the movie rewards patience. I'll also note that it's so harrowing by the end that it makes Saving Private Ryan look like a Disney movie.
Tarkovksy can be hit or miss, and all of his movies . . . well, people who didn't like them would criticize them for being slow. Andrei Roublev is the best place to start.
Nevsky is awesome. I really need to watch that again.
Useful Idiot Annette.
I have to admit, it has a nice ring to it.
I don't understand it. How can you smile at a regime that buries a woman up to her neck in dirt and stones her screaming head because she showed an ankle or walked outdoors without a male escort? How can you smile at a regime that castrates 10 year old girls? How can you smile at a regime that pours gasoline on gays and then tosses a lit match? I'm looking at Annette's picture and her eyes are wide open and she's grinning like an idiot. How can she do that?
Just one quibble. Sadat was assassinated in 1981, not 1979. I do agree with the essence of your post, however.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_Sadat
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