COUP 53

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Given the United States’ improvised, unilateral & unprovoked invasion of Iran, and it’s attempt to drag NATO into the quagmire, NOW seems as good a time as any to revisit Taghi Amirani and Walter Murch’s COUP 53. The 1953 coup in Iran is THE origin story of decades of turmoil and Iran’s toxic relations with the West and in particular the U.S.  Ten years in the making, COUP 53 tells the story of the Anglo-American coup d’état that overthrew Iran’s Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh and reinstalled the Shah.

While making a documentary about the CIA/MI6 coup in Iran, Iranian director Taghi Amirani and editor Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, The English Patient) discover never seen before archive material hidden for decades. The 16mm footage and documents not only allow the filmmakers to tell the story of the overthrow of the Iranian government in unprecedented detail, but it also leads to explosive revelations about dark secrets that, until recently, had been buried for more that 67 years. Working with Ralph Fiennes (The Grand Budapest Hotel, Schindler’s List, The English Patient) to help bring the lost material to life, what begins as a historical documentary about four days in August 1953 turns into a live investigation, taking the filmmakers into uncharted cinematic waters. The roots of Iran’s volatile relationship with America and Britain have never been so forensically and dramatically exposed. COUP 53 is a politically explosive and cinematically innovative documentary that puts the current crisis into critically vital context.

“Has the air of something that grew from an impudent home movie into a magnum opus.”  -Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter

“It has a bit of “All the President’s Men” about it” – Ian Freer, EMPIRE

“Simply great storytelling, full stop.” – Anne Hornaday, Washington Post

“This is big. This is going to be big.” –  Werner Herzog

” One of the best documentaries of recent years.” – Michael Moore

“Extraordinary.” – Errol Morris