Argo, an American movie that recently won "Best Drama Movie" at the Golden Globes, tells the story of the rescue of U.S. Diplomats during the hostage crisis in Iran. The movie tells the story of the secret operation by the CIA and Canada to extract six U.S. embassy workers from revolutionary Iran in 1980.
Despite its success in the United States, with reviews like 96% from Rotten Tomatoes, Iranian authorities have taken offense to the portrayal of their country and people in the movie. A state-run broadcasting agency complained that "The Iranophobic American movie attempts to describe Iranians as overemotional, irrational, insane, and diabolical while at the same, the CIA agents are represented as heroically patriotic." In response to the film, Iran plans to fund and release their own film called "The General Staff," which will be about 20 American hostages who were handed over to the United States by Iranian revolutionaries.They claim that this film will be an "appropriate" response to Argo. I feel that this piece of news definitely connects with the main goals of the class, this is a group that wants to represent themselves in a more positive and more accurate light. They claim that "The General Staff will depict the historical event unlike the American version which lacks a proper view of the story."
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/14/world/meast/iran-argo-response/index.html?hpt=imi_c1
I think perceptions is one a major controversial issue when it comes to international movies production. It will be really cool to watch both movies and see how both movies depicts American and Iranian characters.
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