Coup 53

The screening on Monday 12th October will be followed by a Q&A with director Taghi Amirani, moderated by Martyn Hone. Please note tickets for this screening will be at our off-peak prices.

In this documentary-meets-detective-story, there is a reckoning with one of the most striking foreign interventions. In 1953, a military coup led by British MI6 and backed by the CIA overthrew Iran’s democratically elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh. His crime: nationalizing the country’s oil. The truth behind that original regime change for oil was buried for decades. Iranian director Taghi Amirani, a Queen’s Park resident, spent 10 years uncovering what really happened. With the handiwork of editor Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, The English Patient) and a gripping performance by Ralph Fiennes, the film unfolds like a John le Carré spy thriller — except every word is true. Coup 53 feels less like history and more like a warning: it exposes the roots of today’s war with rare clarity and urgency.

The film’s editor is Walter Murch, who worked on “The Conversation” and “The Godfather: Part II” (both 1974) so there’s not much that he doesn’t know about conspiracy – how it leaks into a movie like the smell of drains.

Anthony Lane – The New Yorker

This powerful and authoritative documentary by the Iranian filmmaker Taghi Amirani is as gripping as any thriller

Peter Bradshaw – The Guardian

Ralph Fiennes appears, lending a wry le Carré air to proceedings as an enigmatic MI6 agent with an explosive testimony.

Larushka Ivan-Zadeh - The Times

It’s like taking a swim in John le Carré’s brain

Dave Calhoun - Time Out

Runtime: 120 minutes Director: Taghi Amirani Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Walter Murch, Taghi Amirani, Malcolm Byrne, Farhad Diba, Alison Rooper, Humphrey Trevelyan, Lord David Owen, Chri

Rating: (15)

Film

Director: Taghi Amirani

Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Walter Murch, Taghi Amirani, Malcolm Byrne, Farhad Diba, Alison Rooper, Humphrey Trevelyan, Lord David Owen, Chri