From Guardian: Rosewater is based on the journalist Maziar Bahari’s memoir of a different name: while covering the Iranian election protests in 2009, the Iranian-Canadian journalist was arrested by the Iranian government and taken to Evin prison. There he was held, interrogated and tortured for 118 days – 107 of which were spent in solitary confinement – and forced to make a televised confession regarding the roles of Western journalists in Iran.

Following his release, he wrote and released his memoir, Then They Came For Me: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival, on which Rosewater is based.

The film was adapted, written and directed by Jon Stewart: Bahari and Stewart met after Bahari’s release, which is how The Daily Show host learned about Bahari’s memoir. After approaching screenwriters, to no avail, Stewart took the project on himself and began writing Rosewater on weekends and during dark weeks on The Daily Show.