Coup 53

Alternate title(s):
Foreign Title:
Date: January 01, 2019 to December 31, 2019
Dates Note: 2019
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Place of Origin: United Kingdom
Languages: English , Italian , Farsi
Color: B&W/Color
Silent: No
Based On:
Additional Info:


Curator Notes

Description: 

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.

Authors/Roles: 
Victoria Jaschob
,
Film Series/Exhibition Title: 
42nd Mill Valley Film Festival at BAMPFA
Description: 

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.

Authors/Roles: 
Victoria Jaschob


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