THE ORIGINAL SIN:

The 1953 U.S./U.K.-backed coup against Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh was one of the pivotal events of the early Cold War, and it continues to have consequences for Iran, the surrounding region, and U.S. foreign policy almost seventy years after it happened. It is in some respects the original sin of U.S. Iran policy since WWII, and we are still living with the damage that it caused. Much of the turmoil and upheaval that have followed in the region have their roots in the American and British policy of interfering in Iran's internal affairs and forcing a change in government.

Taghi Amirani's excellent documentary, Coup 53, explains how the coup was carried out and details the role of the U.S. and U.K. governments in sponsoring and orchestrating Mossadegh's overthrow. The film takes the viewer through the background to 1953, and then shows the links between the coup then and the subsequent developments in Iranian history. I was privileged to have the opportunity to view the film recently, and it is a shame that the documentary does not yet have the wider audience that it deserves.

The U.S. has acknowledged its role in the coup, but even now the U.K. does not officially admit its involvement. One of the interesting contributions of the new documentary is to confirm additional evidence that details the significant British role in the coup. Amirani reconstructs the story of how the coup happened, and provides a new generation with an understanding of the long-term effects of the coup on Iran and Iran's relations with Western powers.

It is a beautifully filmed documentary. There is good reason that it has received standing ovations and effusive praise at the film festivals where it has been screened. Amirani has worked for more than a decade on this project, and he has put in an enormous amount of work into creating the final film. He has traveled to many different countries to find witnesses to the events before and during the coup, and he has woven together a compelling story from the testimonies he has compiled. Some of the key events of the coup are dramatized in animated sequences to recreate the chaotic days in Tehran in August 1953, and Amirani makes great use of contemporary newsreels and audio recordings to recreate the political mood at the time and to capture the views of the different parties involved. [...]

The film touches on the last years of Mossadegh and his burial at his place of internal exile. It is clear that Amirani holds Mossadegh in great esteem, both for his own qualities and for the Iran that he represented. There was a possibility of an Iran with parliamentary democracy, and that possibility was violently snuffed out in favor of authoritarianism and a "pro-Western" alignment. It is unfortunately a familiar story from the Cold War, and one that Americans and Britons should look back on with shame.

The story ends with an epilogue on the reign of the Shah and the buildup to the revolution. This illustrates how relatively brief the so-called "success" of 1953 lasted and the terrible price that the Iranian people have had to pay for that interference over the last almost 70 years. "I've always said that the 11th of February 1979 is in fact the 20th of August 1953," Mossadegh's former head of security says at one point. The coup casts a very long shadow.

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