Wednesday 19 August 2020

COUP 53 - 67th Anniversary of Coup in Iran on 19th August - Documentary


COUP 53, the debut feature documentary thriller by Iranian director Taghi Amirani, will receive an international, online preview screening on August 19th – the 67th anniversary of the CIA/MI6 coup in Iran. Tickets for the preview screening will also grant access to an exclusive live Q+A with Taghi Amirani, Academy Award winning editor & sound designer Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, The English Patient) and Ralph Fiennes (The Grand Budapest Hotel, Schindler’s List, The English Patient) on August 20th. The film will be released digitally in the UK, Ireland, USA and Canada through select cinemas on August 21st.

The film is adopting an unprecedented global release strategy. Working with venues across the UK, US, Canada and Ireland, COUP 53 is offering audiences the chance to buy their digital tickets from a specific movie theatre and help support their local independent cinema. The film will open on August 21. A full list of participating venues is available at https://coup53.com/screenings/

While making a documentary about the Anglo-American coup in Iran in 1953, director Taghi Amirani and editor Walter Murch discovered extraordinary, never-before-seen archive material that had been hidden for decades. The 16mm footage and documents they uncovered not only allowed them to tell the story of the overthrow of the Iranian government in unprecedented detail, but it also led to explosive revelations about dark secrets buried for 67 years. Working with Ralph Fiennes 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.

COUP 53 had its world premiere at the 2019 Telluride Film Festival, where it received a rapturous response. It then went on to screen at the 2019 BFI London Film Festival and the 2019 Vancouver International Film Festival, where it won the audience award for Most Popular International Documentary. The film was also nominated for Best Documentary at the 2019 British Independent Film Awards, and for the Grierson Award at the BFI London Film Festival.