Never mind Iran, other countries should sue Hollywood, too

E-Paper | June 14, 2026

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Actor/Director Ben Affleck shown in a scene from the film "Argo".

FOLLOWING the Iranian ministry of culture and Islamic guidance’s Hoax of Hollywood conference in Tehran this week, it has been reported that Iran may “sue Hollywood” over what it considers to be unrealistic portrayals of the country in several films.

The most recent offender is Ben Affleck’s Argo, based on the Iran hostage crisis of 1979-1981 and winner of this year’s best picture Oscar. Others named include 300, The Wrestler and Not Without My Daughter.

The representation of Iran in Argo is certainly questionable but, as when the Kazakhstan foreign ministry threatened to sue over Borat, the prospect of a lawsuit doesn’t seem entirely realistic. Do nations or governments have a right to accurate representation in fiction? In what jurisdiction could such a case be brought? Wouldn’t there be some sort of statute of limitation on suing over, for example, Not

Without My Daughter, which was made 22 years ago?

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Bearing in mind that “Hollywood” is not a single or coherent entity, who would actually be sued? And, if this story is true, will the organisers of the Hoax of Hollywood conference turn out to be the adorable Thermian aliens out of Galaxy Quest, who come from a planet without fiction, mistake old broadcasts of a Star Trek-like television show for “historical documents”, and end up kidnapping the show’s ageing cast to defend them in a real intergalactic war? Picture poor Ben Affleck as the film’s clapped-out Captain Kirk character, having to explain the concept of movies to the uncomprehending faces at the ministry of culture and Islamic guidance: “On our planet, we, er ... we pretend. To .. to entertain. I am so sorry. God, I am so sorry.”

Furthermore, should the Canadian government get in on this? According to former US president Jimmy Carter, “90 per cent of the contributions to the ideas and the consummation of the plan (in Argo) was Canadian”, not the work of the CIA as it is shown almost exclusively to be. Indeed, one of the fishiest things about this entire story is that the Hoax of Hollywood conference lasted just one day. Hollywood has made up far too much stuff to cover in a mere day. In the wacky parallel universe where this suit succeeds and sets a precedent, lots of countries could have a case for “unrealistic portrayal”:

MONGOLIA: National pride offended by perhaps the worst casting decision of all time, when John Wayne played Genghis Khan in The Conqueror.

NEW ZEALAND: ... has really had enough of people turning up and demanding to see hobbits.

ITALY, INDIA, INDONESIA: Teaming up to take down Eat Pray Love.

PAKISTAN: Upset at the possible damage to its reputation, sues for appearing too stable in Charlie Wilson’s

War.

IRELAND: Just wants Hollywood stars to stop trying to do its accent, whether it’s Orson Welles in The Lady from Shanghai or Tom Cruise in Far and Away.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Though Hollywood is sometimes presumed by Iranian officials to be an instrument of the US government, there’s no reason, in this wacky parallel universe, why it shouldn’t sue itself. Oliver Stone’s JFK, for instance, flat-out invented a case to support the view that president John F. Kennedy was murdered by the CIA in cahoots with Cuban exile organisations.

UNITED KINGDOM: Hollywood misattributed great military feats by Britain and its allies, such as the capture of the Enigma machine in U-571 and the liberation of Burma in Objective, Burma!, to American forces. In Anonymous, it said that England’s greatest playwright was an illiterate fraud and England’s greatest queen was a ditzy nymphomaniac.

In Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, it got everything wrong about England’s greatest folk hero. And — from a Scottish point of view as much as an English one — don’t even get me started on Braveheart.

If the Iranian ministry of culture and Islamic guidance genuinely has an interest in putting forward a positive image of Iran in cinema, it could allow Iranian filmmakers freedom to make great films about their own country or cease its harassment of industry bodies. Sadly, these hopes may also belong in a wacky parallel universe.

Meanwhile, Hollywood, watch out: the British are coming. And this time they’ll have lawyers.

By arrangement with the Guardian

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Elie Gohar Khan

Mar 15, 2013 10:57am

Bearing in mind the propaganda tools that Hollywood has become, something must be done to put a full stop somewhere.

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Secular Pakistan

Mar 15, 2013 12:00pm

Hollywoood is a place where fiction and occasional real events come together to create entertainment. To sue entertainers is like suing comedians for making fun of politcians, even if the comedian is not using facts. Come on people. Let the aritsts do what they do best: Entertain some and offend some. Dont like it, dont view it.

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mazharuddin

Mar 15, 2013 12:36pm

Iran also need to have transparency in its system by accepting the right of freedom of expression to all human beings. Should accept negative view that having reason logic and evidence. This not prehistoric era people believe in mystics without having sound reasons and logic.

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S. A. M.

Mar 15, 2013 01:20pm

The primary purpose of film making is money making. Hav'nt Pakistanis made movies that depicted people from the other faiths in a totally negative way. The makers of such films could probably be thinking of profit at the box office first then of the patriotism or other things. Why we are so sensitive to such movies. These days you cannot stop anyone from putting any thing on the media. SO the more you try to resist it the more prominent it will become. stop being a cry baby.

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Raja

Mar 15, 2013 02:49pm

The interrogations techniques of the CIA were incorrectly portrayed according to the CIA in "Zero Dark Thirty". Now this may or may not have been an accurate portrayal based on someone's frame of reference, leading us to the logical conclusion that perceptions and opinions are subjective. Bearing that in mind there's always going to be someone unhappy about how a situation was depicted, do we really want to go the route of suing and counter suing? Freedom of speech is a blessing and a hard fought right. Would you want restrictions so be placed so that no one can say anything that goes against some 'standard' speak? I know I would rather have someone speak badly about me and in return myself having the same right to speak back rather than restrictions all around.

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Fair Deal

Mar 15, 2013 03:07pm

I am not sure how this scenario is different from the countless religious TV channels which spew out hate not only against other faiths but also against the image of bigger Western countries by the clerics of some of the South East Asia and Middle East countries.

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F Kundi

Mar 15, 2013 03:38pm

Argo is work of malicious and biased minded makers. it is made simply to malign the irani nation. Suing will be justified against defamation and create hatred in the times of volatile and uncertain political arena around the world.

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Mar 15, 2013 04:21pm

Whilst there are many good films or film makers, Hollywood has long been a propaganda tool of the USA. Google is littered with the names of the movies financied as such...

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Jalaluddin S. Hussain

Mar 15, 2013 04:52pm

In the film "Zero Dark 30", which has been recently screened all over the world, had there been a disclaimer, in the beginning of the picture, that the documentary you are going to watch is purely fictional and a figment of Hollywood's imagination, then it was OK. However, it was really a provocative expose of the collusion of Pakistan government, CIA, ISI and the Pakistan military officers and In this respect not entertaining at all!

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Just a Thought

Mar 15, 2013 05:10pm

This is not entertainment "Secular Pakistan", this is portraying the idea of how the society behaves and operates from the "conventional angle" than how it is or how the history has got it in its books. And there wasn't a minute in the movie where any one behaved or acted like they are out there for any entertainment. Borrowing the context, tweaking it to one's thoughts and finally presenting it to the whole world; resulting in getting an oscar on it, just like how India won the World cup, doesn't help the emotion side of things, does it?

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Tanvir

Mar 15, 2013 07:36pm

There must be a way to stop the artists from plundering the reality, the real concepts and the honor of real people and naations.

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akhter husain

Mar 15, 2013 07:52pm

Western media and film industry has always been using freedom of speech and fiction to malign other nations and people since long.The matured people normally ignore it.

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Haider

Mar 16, 2013 02:23am

My dear columnist there is more than enough evidence available that Hollywood is a brain washing tool of CIA. In today's world any intelligence agency don't spare even a small media production how come Hollywood, a giant. I cant understand how can one refuse that the sun is out when he or her is seeing his or her own shadow on the floor.....

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ssf

Mar 16, 2013 03:31am

Hollywood dramatises the events but overall it spends a lot of time and money in reaseaching as well interveiwing people who were involved in those events and studying private documents relating to those historical events. Iran on the other hand is a very closed society and naturally would be critcal of the movie Argo. The movie overall was based on facts but I would like to see Iranian film about those events which they have promised to make.

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sri1ram

Mar 16, 2013 03:44am

Hehhh,, brilliant directors like Jafar Panahi are incarcerated indefinitely in Iran for daring to show a mirror to the Ayotullah regime. As if that isn't enough, they have to take on Hollywood.. Laughable.

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Shubs

Mar 16, 2013 06:43am

Dear Mr Jalaluddin, even if Zero Dark 30 was never made, I doubt you would find many people around the world, outside of Pakistan, who would have any doubts whatsoever, about the cosy relationship between Bin Laden and the Pakistani military establishment. Thanks for the laugh, anyway!

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Shubs

Mar 16, 2013 06:51am

Hollywood is a "propaganda tool" only for people whose lives are dictated by conspiracy theories and perceived slights to fragile national egos. If you went by imagery alone, and by Hollywood portrayals of India throughout the decades, India would be a country filled with snakes, scheming "Maharajas", rivers of sewage, jungles, and oh yes, elephants, magic, mystical sorcerers, a few cannibals here and there, not to forget that ALL people wear some fancy turbans...:-) Perhaps people around the world are more aware of other countries in today's information age that you think? I believe Iran was upset even when the movie 300 came out. Today, the only people who take that movie seriously are teenage boys in the USA with body image issues, and the movie is a kind of running joke about male auto-eroticism. One understands the kind of self-image insecurities that Pakistanis live with, but honestly, that's your problem. Not Hollywood's, and certainly not of people who like that brand of entertainment.

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Ali

Mar 16, 2013 07:46am

Worst thing in ARGO was the ending. Why did they have to chase a public plane on police cars. Simply ground the plane by one call to airport security. As long as the plane is in Iranian air space it can be stopped. but they make it Chucknoris style. follow the plane instead of calling the pilot. The white house presented the oscar it self to the movie. so definetly was political nonsense.

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Mar 16, 2013 08:55am

Well to expect from Hollywood to depict truth is ridiculous thing. What I think is that they made this Argo to compensate and re-write the history; specially the failure of Operation Eagle Claw.

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Nomi

Mar 16, 2013 09:22am

"the prospect of a lawsuit doesn

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Saad

Mar 16, 2013 10:14am

Did they really have Kentucky Fried Chicken in Iran in 1979?

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Aysha Shafiq

Mar 16, 2013 11:54am

All historical movies should declare that the story is partially based on facts and the rest is speculation. The dialogues, the details of sets and costumes are all based on the imagination of the script writer, the set designers, the director and others concerned. The drama is created to make the plot interesting. Even the most factually accurate movies have these imaginative components. So if the movies add a line or two saying that "this is not an exact re-enactment but a speculative reconstruction" or something to that effect, it would be a more honest thing to do. As historians we make such declarations all the time.

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Ibnsaba-majoosi

Mar 16, 2013 03:28pm

Beside all the justifications and refutations which the Iranian stooges in Pakistan give, was it not logical and in the national interest of Pakistan to go with Saudi's package? - "On 15 April 2012 it was reported through unnamed diplomatic sources in Islamabad that Saudi Arabia was offering to deliver an "alternative package" to Pakistan if the country abandoned its cooperation with Iran. In addition to oil the package would also include a cash loan and oil facility". This clearly shows the allegiance of Shias to Iran defying national interest of the nation!

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Waqas

Mar 16, 2013 04:21pm

Lets stop watching Hollywood movies and focus on bollywood from now on ;)

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Shoaib

Mar 17, 2013 12:19am

If we agree to what you say, how will we uphold the respect of our beloved Prophet (pubh) and Islam?

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