"The Green Wave" is a German 80-minute documentary from 2010 and due to the subject here, you will probably need a good set of subtitles unless you are fluent in German, Persian and English. The writer and director is Ali Samadi Ahadi and even if this is perhaps not his most known or most successful work (Salami Aleikum), it is probably his most important as it depicts Iran's Green Revolution. Most of the contents here are basically interviews with the demonstrators who are fighting for a more liberal and tolerant Iran. They mixed the live action parts with animated parts that also depict a great deal of violence and I can clearly see this one being inspired by Waltz with Bashir. That's just speculation though because of how similar the styles are. Still I must say overall that while it was good this film was made, maybe it was not good enough to do justice to the crucial events it depicts. At least I personally found it relatively difficult to really make an emotional connection with this work here, but yeah well maybe it's just me. It sure takes some special skill to get audiences involved in a story that may be as real as it gets, but also plays at the other end of the world. I don't think it was achieved here. This does not mean it's a weak film, not by any means as it is actually a fairly decent film, but also a bit of a missed opportunity as it is not as insightful, memorable and touching as it could have been. I am also not sure if the animation approach here was the best choice, but that is once again just my entirely subjective opinion. So yeah all in all, I give this film a thumbs-up and a positive recommendation, even if the latter is not as enthusiastic as I would have hoped.
Review of The Green Wave
