The Green Wave

This sober yet enraging documentary mixes animation, amateur footage, interviews and even reconstructions of Twitter feeds to recall the false hope of Iran’s June 2009 election when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government suppressed supporters of presidential challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi – supporters who adopted the colour green as their emblem. Most powerful are the readings from blogs written during that month, and it’s these sections that are animated in a style that recalls the 2008 Israeli film ‘Waltz with Bashir’. We hear of a protester’s experience of being imprisoned and of another’s conversation with a relative in the ‘close combat unit’ who admitted being party to assault and murder. ‘The Green Wave’ is told from the point of view of Mousavi’s supporters but manages to offer an informative chronicle of events as well as an emotional outpouring of regret and anger from those who saw their hopes dashed on the streets of Tehran. Some of the video footage – not least that of a mother shouting angrily at the grave of her child – is brutal and arresting.