The Green Wave

Animated blogs and tweets from Iran form the basis for this enlightening and sometimes shocking reconstruction of the Green Revolution in 2009. In May, the population is still convinced that change will come about, but when Ahmadinejad ‘wins’ the elections, oppression returns.

The Iranian election day in June 2009 was to become one big deception: ballot papers went missing and polling stations were closed for unobvious reasons. It signals the beginning of a dark episode, in which presidential candidate Mousavi is placed under house arrest, Ahmadinejad seizes power and demonstrators are shot at. The large-scale protests, symbolized by the slogan “Where is my vote?”  and the assassination of Neda, meet with brutal oppression, as can be seen on local footage made using mobile phones and digital cameras. The blogs and tweets visualized in animation films show the true scope of the crackdown. One student is thrown in a dark cell where he is molested together with fellow inmates, some of which do not survive. Another female student recalls the day she was released: “I got out of a small prison to go into a much bigger one: Iran.”