Nazanin Zaghari-ratcliffe Documentary

[PinkStarAtNight]

First of all I just want to say I have been a supporter of Nazanin and Richard from the very beginning and am so happy that she's home, of course.

Fully prepared to be told IABU but just wanted to ask...

So I'm watching the channel 4 documentary about Nazanin Zaghari-ratcliffe (it's on right now). And I can't help asking, where the films of him speaking to her on the phone really filmed back then in 2016 as it claims? And the footage of him and Gabriella in their London home, speaking to Nazanin on the phone, meeting with all of the experts etc etc? If so this means they were filming everything even back then, but haven't showed anything until now. I can't help wondering why?

I had a similar feeling when watching Kate Garraway's documentary about Derek's struggle. I have the utmost empathy for them as well, but couldn't help getting this feeling that she started filming intimate moments so early on, and then didn't share them until years later when making the documentary. I couldn't help asking myself where they doing that with the idea in mind that one day they will be able to make money out of a documentary? (same sort of feeling you get when watching Harry and Meghan's netflix drama, although of course they're much worse)

There's also footage of Nazanin recording a video of herself while in prison, saying she had been there 9 months. I wouldn't have thought she had access to a phone. And if she did, why wasn't that video released before now? I followed her case quite closely and never saw a video of her speaking before she finally came home, although I suppose I could have missed it.

So I guess I'm just asking do people think they have done these videos in 2023 especially for the documentary, for dramatic affect? I imagine that would probably be a decision by the producers rather than themselves. Or are they really from that time and if so, does it bother anyone else that they filmed all this years ago thinking they could one day make a documentary, and therefore money? (Bearing in mind when Nazanin did her first press conference when first back from Iran she was unwilling to speak too much about her experience and said she may never share it publicly, but now we have this documentary)

I may just be an absolutely horrible person so feel free to tell me if I am being awful, but I'm just a bit genuinely confused.

Of course regardless of any of this I wouldn't want to disrespect Nazanin in any way and I have so much empathy for the absolutely awful experiences she and her family have been through, I'm so happy for them that she finally came home. This isn't really about them personally its more just got me thinking about all documentaries like this because it seems to be the same with all of them, in terms of wondering whether the intimate phone calls are staged/re-created and why they filmed it all so early and kept hold of it for years etc

Do tell us how much money you think they made from being the subject of a documentary, OP.

You really think they viewed the whole thing as a ‘get rich quick’ scheme?

I wonder how they obtained the "security footage" (I think it said) of Nazanin at the airport?

I thought it said that it had been secretly hacked, but perhaps that was the footage inside the prison?

Yes there was footage of inside the prison which it said was hacked

The footage of her at the airport was from secret cameras attached to the security guards, by the looks of it. Not sure how they got those.

I don't really mind about that sort of thing, it was the stuff that was filmed in 2016 that bothered me because I was thinking surely he can't have filmed calls to Nazanij straight away so they must have been staged/re-created for the documentary. Or if they were filmed back in 2016, I was thinking 'why would your first thought be to start filming for a future documentary?'

But everyone's contributions on here have really made me think about it differently and realise there are all sorts of reasons why someone might do that, its not my place to judge anyway and also that I was being overly synical! Like I said, on this occasion I'm happy to be told I'm wrong :) Thanks everyone!

There was a lot of media interest in the case and so I think it's logical that you'd want to document it as you went along. It might have initially been for the benefit of their daughter so that she could fully understand when she was older...but I also don't think there's anything wrong with considering the possibility that one day this would become a documentary or a book.

Lots of people have written books or had films made about their experiences as hostages or going through something hugely traumatic. For some it can be a form of therapy and also, the public often want to know what it was really like.

I think it gets a bit much, in the case of H&M when it seems to be about repeating the same story and apparently not being able to move forward, but I can't see Nazanin being like that at all. She's genuinely been through hell and back and has a story to tell.

I don't think I'm being overly cynical but I can't help wondering about aspects of the documentary that we weren't fully informed about. While I'm wondering I can't fully respond to a moving and shocking story, the truth of which I don't question.

The petition to free Nazanin was started one month after she was imprisoned and a Free Nazanin fb page set up. The government advised keeping quiet but Richard wanted it out in public, Nazanin worked for an international charity and Richard was interviewed on the main news channels asking for his petition to be signed. We're pre-brexit Referendum so Cameron was PM. The first thing Richard asked people to do was to send cards to the Iranian Embassy for his daughters 2nd birthday.

The footage of Nazanin's arrest was shown on Iranian TV as she was accused of plotting against the state. The filming Richard did was probably with supporters he came to know well. Eventually Richard made it public that Iran wanted back the money that the Shah of Iran had paid for Chieftain tanks and the interest on it. When the Shah was overthrown Nazanin was less than 3 months old. There were international sanctions issued against Iran so the UK government were unable to pay the debt. You saw Richard going to watch the proceedings in the court.

Richard had a lot of influential support and was supported by many MP's led by his MP continually fighting for justice for Iran. In the end it was agreed that the UK could release the money to a third party and it had to be used for humanitarian aid. Oman sent a plane to Tehran to take Nazanin and another prisoner out of Iran to a military aircraft for the journey to the UK. I note that while Richard put in the gaffe Johnson made and showed the MP'S that supported him there was no footage of Liz Truss.

Richard and Nazanin took a monumental risk but it paid off. Clearly Gabriella was a much loved and cherished little girl but she, Nazanin and Richard were robbed of 6 years of their family life

Following

It was high profile and highly publicised from the off, there would have been journalists heavily involved from the earliest moments, and it stands to reason that an intelligent man like Richard would have consulted journalists (and potentially a film crew) about how to raise the necessary awareness around the case. Undoubtedly they didn’t expect the case to go on as long as it did, but the longer it went on the more imperative it was to document the process , if only as a record of what was happening and the failings of the British government. Releasing lots of this earlier could have jeopardised her safety / negotiations. Imagine the complexities of recording what had been said / promised and trying to relay that between everyone involved in trying to free Nazanin.

The part where she came home 😢😢😢😢😢
Cried so much.
I really really hope that they can all stay together as a family. And hope they can not let it all rule their lives.
I know sometimes trauma forces people apart.
I hope they can all be happy and have a good life after everything.
It's such a lot for all of them to go through.

As the films showed gabriella growing up , obviously they were made at the time. Ditto the films of his public protests and hunger strike.

I imagine he made a record for Nazarin to see , if/when she ever got out.

I can only think they kept conversations and filming to themselves in case it endangered Nazanin or made her case worse. I didn’t think the documentary was particularly well made.

Why didn't you think it was well made?

Of course regardless of any of this I wouldn't want to disrespect Nazanin in any way and I have so much empathy for the absolutely awful experiences she and her family have been through
… but I suspect them of bad faith anyway.

Stop your virtue signalling if you haven’t the sympathy to imagine why a family might document such a terrible situation.