On November 4, 1979, Iranian university students took over the US embassy building (which later came to be known as the US spy den) to thwart Washington's plots against the Islamic Revolution. Inside the embassy, the students found shredded documents which proved their convictions.
Since then, Iranians have celebrated the Nov. 4 takeover of the embassy, when 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days.
But, the newly produced and staged movie, Argo, a 2012 American thriller film directed by Ben Affleck, shows Tony Mendez, a CIA operative, led the rescue of six US diplomats from Tehran. The US and Canadian officials stress that the story is true.
The film shows Militants storm the US embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, in retaliation for the nation's sheltering the recently deposed Shah. More than 50 of the embassy staff are taken as hostages, but six escape and hide in the home of the Canadian ambassador.
Addressing a meeting about Argo here in Tehran, prominent Iranian movie director Nadder Talebzadeh said that US spy den takeover by Iranian students was a great failure for the US.
"That (US embassy takeover) was a humiliating defeat (for Washington), and the movie, Argo, is just a piece of propaganda," Talebzadeh said.
He said that the ending of the scenario is "complete fiction" as it has been recorded in the history that "the six went to the (Iranian) foreign ministry first and then to the Canadian embassy and could eventually leave Iran and return to their country legally with their passports in their hands.
The critic further added that Hollywood makes use of its best potentials and largest capacities to defame Iran or pretend that the US has defeated Iran.
"It took them 30 years to produce this drama because the US had no winning card in the 1979 hostage taking," he said.
"They (the US) didn't have anything in Tabas desert where they were defeated again, but they make films empty-handed and have nothing to say," said the critic.
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