The screening on 31 July will be followed by a Q&A with director Taghi Amirani and Academy Award- winning editor Walter Murch, hosted by the Iranian Film Club's Zhaleh Bahraini.
With Iran and the world once again on the brink, COUP 53 feels less like history and more like a warning.
In 1953, a military coup led by British MI6 backed by the CIA overthrew Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh. His crime: nationalising the country's oil. The truth behind that original regime change for oil was buried for decades.
Iranian director Taghi Amirani spent ten years uncovering what really happened. Working with legendary editor Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, The English Patient) and a gripping performance by Ralph Fiennes, the film unfolds like a John le Carré spy thriller — except every word is true.
COUP 53 exposes the roots of today's tensions with rare clarity and urgency.
A documentary. A detective story. A reckoning.
The film is showing at the Garden Cinema in collaboration with the Iranian Film Club.
The film’s editor is Walter Murch, who worked on “The Conversation” and “The Godfather: Part II” (both 1974) so there’s not much that he doesn’t know about conspiracy – how it leaks into a movie like the smell of drains.
Anthony Lane – The New Yorker
"This powerful and authoritative documentary by the Iranian filmmaker Taghi Amirani is as gripping as any thriller"
Peter Bradshaw – The Guardian
"Ralph Fiennes appears, lending a wry le Carré air to proceedings as an enigmatic MI6 agent with an explosive testimony."
Larushka Ivan-Zadeh - The Times
"It’s like taking a swim in John le Carré’s brain"
Dave Calhoun - Time Out
