Thursday Screening: January 25, 2024
An interview with a Russian dissident and a look inside post-protest Iran
Happy Thursday and welcome back to Son of a Diplomat’s in-house movie club. This week we’ve got an interview with a humorous Russian Jew with a penchant for history and a bleak look inside Iran. If you’ve been enjoying this series, don’t hesitate to leave a like or share it with someone who might appreciate watching along with us:
1420 by Daniil Orain: Yakov — The Most Dissenting Russian
You don’t see a lot of opposition to the Kremlin in Russia these days. Alexei Navalny is languishing in a Siberian gulag. Intellectuals and independent media have fled the country for the relative safety of the West. And the remaining population has either been beaten into submission or is actively along for the ride, lapping up the frantic ravings of Vladimir Solovyov and Margarita Simonyan on a nightly basis. That said, a few weeks ago a Russian YouTuber uploaded a man on the street interview with a surprisingly clear-eyed man in Moscow that’s well worth the watch:
VICE News: Inside Iran: What Happened to Iran’s Women-led Uprising?
Currently Iran is mostly in the news for its constant string of state-sponsored terror attacks in the Middle East. But it was just sixteen months ago the country erupted into protest over the morality police’s murder of Mahsa Amini. The Islamic Republic responded by brutally repressing the protestors, killing hundreds and detaining thousands more. Executions stemming from the protests are still happening to this day. VICE News sent Isobel Yeung (who has done great work reporting from Afghanistan and Ukraine among other places) to Iran to survey the post-uprising climate. It’s a depressing look at current conditions on the ground in Ayatollah Khamenei’s theocracy:
Thank you for checking out Thursday Screening! I’ll be back on Monday as always with the regular newsletter.