CANCELED: Coup 53

All film screenings and public programs at BAMPFA have been temporarily canceled. Learn more

Passionate and fearless.

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter

After the screening on March 7, enjoy a Film to Table dinner at Babette, the cafe at BAMPFA. Join an intimate group of fellow filmgoers for a four-course, prix-fixe meal in a convivial, dinner-party atmosphere. Purchase dinner tickets in advance at babettecafe.com (film tickets must be purchased separately).

Ten years in the making, Iranian director Taghi Amirani’s feature film debut is a fascinating investigation into the 1953 Anglo-American coup d’état in Iran that displaced democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh and reinstalled Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as shah, turning Iran into a despotic monarchy. Tracing the coup from the events leading up to it through its aftermath, Amirani and editor and cowriter Walter Murch uncovered a wealth of secrets held for over sixty years in a trove of documents and film obtained from a 1985 British television documentary. Assembling never-before-seen archival footage, animation, and interviews with witnesses on both sides of the conflict, Coup 53 presents a chilling exposé of one of the first covert actions by the United States and United Kingdom to overthrow a sitting government in order to protect “national interests,” at the expense of what could have been the largest democracy in the Middle East.

Victoria Jaschob
FILM DETAILS 
Screenwriter
  • Taghi Amirani
  • Walter Murch
Cinematographer
  • Taghi Amirani
  • Chris Morphet
  • Claudia Raschke
Language
  • English
  • Italian
  • Farsi
  • with English subtitles
Print Info
  • B&W/Color
  • DCP
  • 119 mins
Source
  • Taghi Amirani