a biography on soraya esfandiary, queen consort to the last shah of iran. a beautiful woman. the shah is emperor. this film focuses on the romance and drama between her and her then husband reza pahlavi. like many monarchs, they were pressured to produce an heir. and as powerful as we perceive them to be, they are really more vulnerable and not in control because of their position.in any case, my favorite part(s) is where it touched on the history of iran itself. the political backdrop. at this time, european powers (mainly the british) imposed an embargo, having sent battleships to prevent the arrival/departure of trade ships, so that iran will be forced to sell their oil and trade with them. sounds familiar? this has very similar underlying circumstances of when the US forced japan to trade.
the result was irans citizens starved and suffered for there was no food or anything coming in. nor oil coming out. depleting the country's coffers. this angered the people. and a nationalist movement was formed. iranian oil for iranians.
reza's family urged him to agree with the british so that the political threat of the national movement would be stopped. but soraya who was ideal at this time, and having talked with certain figures in the nationalist movement, urged him to not give in. to follow what the people wanted. this was the turning point.
a coup d'etat ensued. it was so easy. because the people had nothing to lose.
this was a good movie because it opened my mind as to what happened in iran. how it was the british who started it. how americans got involved, when they had a deal with the shah to retake the thrown after his brief initial exile in italy. and later, this was no longer part of the movie, but was soon overthrown with another coup by ayatollah khomeini and this time, iran became what we perceive of iran today. an islamic republic.
rating 4 out of 5
its all about power, greed and oil
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