Iranians mixed feelings over Argo's Oscar

Oscar for Argo was not entirely what one would expect. While it was predictable that Iranian government and its official media would attack the movie, many monarchists and those who support Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late Shah, also bashed the film and accused it of being sympathetic to the revolutionaries who seized the U.S. Embassy in 1979 and held U.S. diplomats hostage. Ahmad Reza Baharloo, a well-known TV anchor and former host for the Voice of America for over two decades, wrote that the movie depicted facts upside down and attacked Ben Affleck, the director of Argo and his advisor Rafi Pitts as naïve. Meanwhile, other Iranian bloggers in Diaspora complained that the movie showed Iranians to bes barbarians and asserted that the decision of the Motion Picture Academy to give Argo its top award was influenced by White House. One blogger who goes by the name Azad, or Freedom, called the movie conservative and liberal propaganda intended to support the Obama administration’s policies toward Iran. Inside Iran, the award sparked a lot of anger. Iranian Culture Minister Mohammad Hosseini reacted to the decision by saying, “The movie is an anti-Iran film. It is not a valuable film from the artistic point of view.” Not only hardliners condemned the decision but some reformists also called the movie part of the ‘psychological war’ being waged by the U.S. against Iran. Among the latter was Masoomeh Ebtekar, who was one of the students who occupied the U.S. Embassy and acted as the Iranian students’ spokeswoman. Ebtekar, a fluent English speaker raised partly in Philadelphia and dubbed “Sister Mary” by the hostages, said the film exaggerated the violence among crowds that stormed the compound and insisted that the hostage-takers were mostly students. Masoud Forutan, an Iranian film critic, called the movie politically motivated and lacking in the technical standards necessary to receive an Oscar. Another well-known film critic and blogger said the movie was more about Americans’ addiction to happy endings than history. Others said Argo is a sanitized version of history that omits dirty deeds by the U.S. Embassy in Iran at the time. Some Iranians, who are prone to conspiracy theories, regarded the appearance of First Lady Michelle Obama at the climax of the Oscar broadcast as part of a well-knitted plot. This view was not limited to Iranians inside Iran. A blogger named Negar criticized the Oscars ceremony asking, “Why did Michelle Obama announce Argo as the Oscar’s best picture right before the P5+1 talks with Iran?” He was referring to talks resuming Tuesday (February 26) in Kazakhstan between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany. Adam Nima Pourahmadi, a blogger outside Iran, said it was “ironic” that the announcement was made by the White House and not the Oscars’ committee, asking whether anyone in the White House had even a clue of what the final decision would be. On the other side, supporters of the award pointed to the movie’s very good cinematography and great visualization of the scenes and events. Many bloggers, including Ali Azad, appeared to have learned something from the film. Azad wrote, “We didn’t know anything about this part of the history but we know at least what has happened three decades ago which generates enmities between two nations…” Many Iranian users on Twitter who opposed giving Argo the award joined the hashtag campaign of “#argof**kyourself” and criticized the movie for not paying enough attention to historical facts. State-run Press TV tweeted Argo as a dirty anti-Iran game. Others expressed their gratitude toward director and star Affleck for mentioning in his acceptance remarks that friends in Iran were still living under terrible circumstances. And it was worth mentioning that one blogger tried to coax his Iranian readers to accept his conspiracy theory by pointing to comments by Larry King as a well-known TV figure among Iranians. “Larry King’s prediction of Argo as the best picture in 2013 depicts that there is a plot behind the scene!” the blogger wrote. “Because King is a CIA agent first and then a TV host.” (!)