Film | GERMANY – IRAN
In the streets of Tehran and other big cities, the euphoria was evident: clothes, bracelets, scarfs, nail polish and other items were all worn as a green greeting, as an attribute of peaceful unity and as a gesture of rebellion. In this crowd of green-wearing supporters, the hopes of the predominantly young voters (70% of the population are under 25) for a regime change were high, and rightfully so: Surveys indicated a high victory over the opposition.
Though news coverage from Iran was almost impossible – only Ahmadinejad’s provocations were received through the news channels -- the Green Movement euphoria was sensed abroad. Twitter and Facebook messages, YouTube videos and especially numerous blogs reflected the unforeseen euphoric mood, even if traditional news told a different story.
Then, on June 12th, 2009, the presidential elections took place and dashed the hopes of the Green Movement: Contrary to all expectations and forecasts, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected, and it was obvious that there had been large-scale vote- rigging. Green Movement supporters were stunned by the loss and took to the streets to peaceably protest the rigged vote.
However, the supreme clerical leader of Iran, Khamenei, declared the election result official and uttered an explicit threat to the protesters. The members of the peaceful resistance did not back down, and the crowd control measures against the protesters became more and more brutal. Images of the attacks went viral on the internet: The image of Neda being fatally shot in the chest during a peaceful
demonstration was seen around the world. Countless cell phone videos uploaded to the internet evidenced the excessive brutality that the government militia used against the demonstrators: militant police driving on motorbikes into the crowd of people; police beating protestors with knives and batons; and militants treading on the dead or the injured, lying defenselessly on the ground.
The regime systematically took action against the ongoing protests, against oppositionists and – like in a frenzy of violence – also against innocent bystanders. Raids at night, arrests on a large scale, never-ending interrogations, rapes, abductions, torture – any desire for freedom, any thought of rebellion was and is suppressed with inhuman cruelty. To this day, the pressure of the regime continues, but although the Green Revolution has been subjugated with every available means, the desire of the people for more freedom and dignity is unbroken – just as is their willingness to fight for it.
Since thousands of oppositionists and supporters of the Green Revolutions were forced to flee into exile, now waiting in reception camps or other countries to be granted asylum, there is now a force of Green Revolution supporters free to report and document the government suppression, including The Green Wave documentarian Ali Samadi Ahadi.
The Storyline of The Green Wave and Blogging
The Iranian blogger scene, which is considered to be one of the largest in the world, came about in the years 1999 to 2003, at the height of another reform movement. Since 2005, this
internet forum has been curtailed as bloggers struggled with stricter regime controls. Any blogger making critical comments risked government prosecution. However, in the months before the presidential elections of 2009, the blog scene started to flourish, and the internet has again become an important, vital lifeline for the revolution.
Over a thousand different entries in Iranian blogs became the inspiration for the two fictional students in The Green Wave – their thoughts being the emotional thread running through the real events: how they perceive the awakening of the Green Movement, how they wake up from a frustrating hopelessness to feel there may be a chance to shape the future, how they become desperate with the fear beginning to grow again and how they, despite all, do not give up hope.
The stories of the students, Azadeh and Kaveh, are told through motion comic, acting as a rich contrast to the real video images of the revolt and the interviews with prominent Iranian personalities and human rights activists. The likes of Dr. Shirin Ebadi (Noble Peace Prize winner), the Shiite cleric Dr. Mohsen Kadivar (one of the most important critics of the Islamic Republic), the young journalist Mitra Khalatbari, Dr. Payam Akhavan (former UN war crimes prosecutor and a specialist in human rights) and Mehdi Mohseni (blogger and election assistant to Mir-Hossein Mousavi) contributed their thoughts to the film.
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