Hacker Cinema
Coup 53
2019 · Film · documentary · 121 min
Directed by Taghi Amirani
Tehran, Iran, August 19, 1953. A group of Iranian conspirators who, with the approval of the deposed tyrant Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, have conspired with agents of the British MI6 and the US CIA, manage to put an end to the democratic government led by Mohammad Mosaddegh, a dramatic event that will begin the tragic era of coups d'état that, orchestrated by the CIA, will take place, over the following decades, in dozens of countries around the world.
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4 comments on Hacker News
There was a TV show made in the 1980s called The End of Empire [0] which is (mostly) available on YouTube. It chronicles what happened in India, Palestine, Iran, Egypt, Cyprus, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Singapore etc. and may be of interest to those musing about Britain's decline.
I learned about it from watching Coup 53 [1].
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2WaMdGl0uw&list=PLanJEt7jLor-VJXlsdPZNkoQbfwouvH-a
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1984135
There is an interesting episode about this in a 1985 British documentary called "End of Empire". If I am not mistaken, all episodes are on YouTube except one. It seems an agent gave an interview for the episode on Iran and accidentally (?) mentioned his employer's involvement in the 1953 coup. This was deleted from the final script.
More recently, an Iranian film maker made an another interesting documentary chasing up the details surrounding this edited script and what may have been deleted. It starred Ralph Fiennes as the agent being interviewed:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coup_53
I can recommend the documentary Coup 53 [0] on this subject. The rest of the episodes of End of Empire have kindly been uploaded to YouTube and are worth a watch.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coup_53
There was a documentary about the coup shown on Channel 4 in the UK in 1985: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhCgJElpQEQ
Just before it was shown, the role of Norman Darbyshire, the MI6 officer involved in the coup, was leaked to the Observer: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/02/mi6-the-coup-in-iran-that-changed-the-middle-east-and-the-cover-up
The Observer received a D-notice which prevented its publication.
The makers of Coup 53 made use of the unpublished Observer material.
Briefly, the UK Government wanted Mosaddegh overthrown because he wanted to nationalize a British oil company (Anglo-Iranian). It tried to get the CIA involved but Truman opposed American involvement. This changed when Eisenhower was elected president.