For the third time in five years, the Islamic Republic has invited Moore to come to Iran and be honored for his documentaries that flail American capitalism. And for the third time, Moore has simply ignored the invitation. He hasn’t accepted. He hasn’t declined. He’s been a no-show. But in Tehran, some folks say he has left them with the understanding that he really wants to come.
This week Moore did not attend the annual Cinéma Vérité festival, the Iranian international festival for documentary films, which concludes tomorrow.
In August, Deputy Culture Minister for Cinematic Affairs Javad Shamaqdari announced that Moore would visit Iran this autumn. “He has asked [for permission] to travel to Iran, and we are trying to invite him to the Cinéma Vérité,” Shamaqdari said then.
“He has said that he wants to visit Iran to do research about the country. In addition, he is an opponent of US government policies and he wants to show his objection by traveling to Iran,” Shamaqdari said.
On two previous occasions, Cinéma Vérité officials announced that Moore planned to travel to Iran. But he never came.
In 2007, the festival announced that it had invited Moore and his producer Meghan O’Hara to promote “Sicko,” their highly acclaimed documentary attacking the US medical system, at the Cinéma Vérité festival.
However, O’Hara denied that and said, “There is absolutely no truth to the right-wing promoted rumor that Michael is going to Iran—none, zero, zip.”
Cinéma Vérité again announced in May 2008 that Moore was planning to travel to Iran to attend the festival, but he did not visit Iran that time either, and the officials had no comment about the Moore no-show.
Moore has had no trouble publicly embracing Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. But Mahmud Ahmadi-nejad may be a stretch even for Moore. American leftists who often embrace opponents of American foreign policies have ignored or even attacked the Islamic Republic. To find an elected American political figure willing to say anything nice about Iran, one has to go right rather than left, to libertarian Rep. Ron Paul. (See story about him elsewhere in this issue.)