Almost a year ago, the Green Revolution was ignited in Iran when Ahmadinejad and the ruling clerics stole an election from Mir-Hossein Mousavi and his millions of supporters. A young generation, intent upon putting Mousavi in office, took to the streets en masse. Protests broke out across the nation … until the holy men decided they had had enough. Ultimately, bullets put an end to the nascent democratic movement (at least for now), and the brutality of the regime was captured in moving images watched worldwide: they showed us a young woman, Neda, getting indiscriminately gunned down by a sniper, her eyes staring at us as she lay dying in the streets. Above, we’re featuring a newly released HBO documentary that introduces you to Neda Agha-Soltan and her life story. Written and directed by the award winning filmmaker Antony Thomas, the 70 minute film was created with a fair amount of risk, and it includes interviews with Neda’s family in Iran. The Iranian regime, naturally doing its best to stop citizens from seeing the film, plans to release its own documentary, putting the official spin on the murder.
For Neda has been added to our growing collection of Free Movies Online. You can learn more about the film on the HBO website.
via 3quarksdaily. H/T to Mike.
“And I know the danger of beauty to these men.”
A deeply partisan, deeply sobering look at the state of Iran today as exemplified by the shooting of a beautiful young woman, Neda, who participated in mass protests following a national election widely viewed in country and out as fixed by the conservative Islamists in power.
Despite its occasional sentimentality it’s shocking to watch. In the west we dismiss Iran as an intolerant theocracy, and it is that. But this movie fills in the brutal details — illustrating just how intolerant and just how theocratic (and how blatantly prejudiced again women). A chilling documentary everyone should see at least once.