Of course, the first three words of this post are basically a slightly version of what @kimmie_c_ said on TSMSFKA Twitter (The Social Media Site Formerly Known As Twitter) when she saw this post:
Asghar Farhadi Says Films Like ‘Argo’ Perpetuate American White Savior Myth: ‘Who Asked You To Come and Save Us?’ https://t.co/SMShfrsaGQ
— Variety (@Variety) October 3, 2026
Argo is the very good, Oscar winning movie from 2012 directed by and starring Ben Affleck. This Rotten Tomatoes summary does a pretty good job telling you what it is about:
On Nov. 4, 1979, militants storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran, taking 66 American hostages. Amid the chaos, six Americans manage to slip away and find refuge with the Canadian ambassador. Knowing that it’s just a matter of time before the refugees are found and likely executed, the U.S. government calls on extractor Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) to rescue them. Mendez’s plan is to pose as a Hollywood producer scouting locations in Iran and train the refugees to act as his ‘film’ crew.
Naturally, Kimmie’s post (which we can't use here) used the actual uncensored F-bomb, as a reference to the running joke in the movie where characters would say ‘Argo f**k yourself’ to each other as a dry joke.
The key thing to get is that this is a movie about Americans rescuing Americans who very desperately need and want to be rescued. We haven’t watched the movie in a while, but as we recall, their only hesitation is the fear that this specific plan won’t work — not a desire to stay in Iran during the hostage crisis, because these people weren't crazy. They knew they needed to get out of Dodge.
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In other words, what this Iranian director, Asghar Farhadi, said makes zero sense. We will get more into his comments in a minute, but these people undeniably needed to be rescued. At best these people were facing the possibility of being held hostage. At worst, they were going to be killed.
But before we get too far into this, we want to point out that this is an Iranian director saying this. We don’t mean he is Iranian ethnically (ethnic Iranians typically call themselves Persians, anyway) or that he used to live in Iran. We mean it’s where he currently calls home, along with his family, at least as of last May:
Asghar Farhadi Lives in Iran, but Won’t Make Movies There https://t.co/fXx0i09lkt
— IndieWire (@IndieWire) May 16, 2026
That article notes that he ‘lives with his family in Tehran,’ the article mentions that he has at least two daughters, so he probably has at least one wife, not to mention parents, siblings, etc. The point we are making is that although he obviously is able to leave the country, we can’t assume he can speak freely, because even if he wanted to defect to the west, totalitarian regimes are not above punishing your family for your crimes. That is precisely what the State Department alleges about Iran:
— Black Conservative (@BlackConserva17) May 7, 2024
From that report:
‘Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: … political prisoners or detainees; transnational repression against individuals in another country; … punishment of family members for alleged offenses by a relative;’
And of course, we are skipping over many other crimes. So, that puts Farhadi’s comments in a bit more perspective. From the article:
Asked about ‘Argo’ winning Best Picture just a year after ‘A Separation’ won Best International Film at the Oscars, Farhadi said he watched the film at the time it came out and felt it was a ‘Hollywood thing.’ … The moderator mentioned how Affleck’s film portrays Iran ‘like you’re in hell.’
‘The problem with these kinds of films in Hollywood [and] some people in the United States [is that] they look at the world from up to down,’ he added. ‘Someday you should ask them: Why do you feel you’re up and we’re down? I don’t understand why they have this ego that they’re up.’ The Iranian director then said Americans often claim to ‘have democracy,’ but they don’t. ‘You don’t have democracy. It’s a lie.’
After a bit about prisons that seems to have no discernible point, he comes back to Argo:
‘They make these movies for money; it’s a business. And in these films it’s always a white guy from the United States saving others. My question is: Why? Why does an American go to Cuba or Iran to save people? People understand they can save themselves. Who asked you to come and save us?’
Seriously, that comment is so clueless from a guy who allegedly saw the movie, we think it is a giveaway that he is just saying whatever he has to, to keep him and his family out of an Iranian prison (or worse). Seriously, what is he supposed to say? ‘Yes, life in Iran is a living hell, and I am not at all worried that my daughters might end up in a prison for what I just said’? Why are reporters this dense? Seriously, shame on everyone at Variety for pretending this was a normal conversation between people who can all speak freely.
This man didn’t see the film, clearly. It’s not about saving Iran. Iran was by that point (and still is) beyond saving. Nixon and Carter ensured that disaster. The film was about getting Americans out of the hellhole that is a fundamentalist Islamic state. That hasn’t changed,…
— MG (@hcaulfield8148) October 3, 2026
The cut off word is ‘unfortunately.’
We Iranians asked Israel and the United States for help us with military action, but this ba$tard is a regime apologist and got a duty to spread regime propaganda! We know him well. pic.twitter.com/GncoK5BhgB
— Picky Brunette 𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎠 (@PickyBrunette) October 4, 2026
… Um, “Argo” came out in theaters FIFTEEN FREAKING YEARS AGO !!
— Tim Estiloz (@TimEstiloz) October 4, 2026
… If Argo is Farhadi’s biggest complaint about how Iran is depicted in cinema… maybe Iran needs to MAKE MORE FILMS about how “wonderful” the country is.
Ben Affleck is NOT Iran’s biggest PR problem !@janoglak pic.twitter.com/uvGZPTa6YH
Ugh, does this dude not understand that everyone with more than two brain cells to rub together wouldn’t believe a movie out of Iran?
Which we admit doesn’t include most of the ‘Free Palestine’ movement, but there you go.
Moron. If I am a diplomat caught/held against my will in an Islamic hellhole like Iran, I desperately hope that a White Savior will come to my rescue.
— April Neale 💛💙🇨🇦🍁🇨🇦 (@AprilMac) October 3, 2026
We (Americans) all know Iranians have to rise up and save themselves, as we are past the point of caring.
We think they would like a savior of any color.
Farhadi works with the IRGC on his films, supports the Islamic Republic’s survival, and serves its propaganda apparatus. So why should his political views matter?
— مِهراز ☼𓃬 (@sangtarash_azad) October 4, 2026
We haven’t been able to verify that, but at the very least, he can’t speak freely. That should disqualify his opinion, even if it wasn’t also clueless.
- The moderator mentioned how Affleck’s film portrays Iran “like you’re in hell.”
— The Science™ (@mreasycredit) October 4, 2026
IT'S SET DURING A REVOLUTION FFS
Oh, but they're usually such lovely affairs, aren't they? Fun fact: The French Revolution was catered. They'd have food carts roaming the blood-soaked streets…
The cut off text: ‘…offering baguettes and foie gras.’
We detect sarcasm.
I, and millions other Iranians, asked America to come and save us, and protect themselves, from those whose atrocities no just man, unlike you, can ignore!
— Leo Moradi (@Leo_Moradi) October 3, 2026
من نمیدونم چطوری میشه شرف داشت و چیزی غیر از «حکومت داره مردم رو میکشه. جوونا رو دارن اعدام میکنن. زندگیها رو دارن از هم میپاشونن. مردم دارن زیر فشار اقتصادی و سیاسی له میشن. کمکشون کنید» پیام آدم به جهان باشه اگه بلندگویی در اختیار داره https://t.co/jJnavETCFb
— Prof. Balthazar (@Prof__Balthazar) October 4, 2026
Alleged translation from Persian (there was a lot of dragging of Farhadi in Persian):
I can’t understand how someone could have any sense of honor and have a message to the world that’s anything other than ‘The regime is killing the people. They’re executing the youth. They’re tearing lives apart. People are being crushed under economic and political pressure. Help them’—if they have a platform to speak from.
We can understand fear.
Finally:
هر سنگی روبلند میکنی یه سلبریتی دست پرورده جمهوری اسلامی داره به ملت ایران لگد میزنه! فقط دعا کنید روزی که ورق برمیگرده دست ما نیوفتید https://t.co/01FvxII2YD
— Darwin🇮🇷 (@dara1773059) October 4, 2026
Alleged translation:
Every rock you turn over, there’s a celebrity nurtured by the Islamic Republic kicking the Iranian people! Just pray that when the tables turn, you don’t fall into our hands.
We hope that someday the Iranian people are free, somehow. And when that day comes, we imagine there might be retribution, much like the trials at Nuremburg. But we also hope they are wise and compassionate enough to recognize duress as a defense.
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