Argo: The true story behind Ben Affleck's Globe-winning film (original) (raw)

Ben Affleck's film Argo tells the bizarre story of how in 1980 the CIA - with Canadian help - sprang a group of Americans from Iran after they escaped a US embassy overrun by protestors.

The film, which has received seven Oscar nominations including one for best picture, is based on real-life events. But how much of it is fiction?

When Mark Lijek took Tehran as his first posting in the US foreign service, he knew he wasn't opting for an easy life.

"I was asked to volunteer in October 1978 and things in Iran were already pretty bad," he explains.

"There were violent demonstrations on the streets and it wasn't at all clear the Shah could survive. Then in January he abdicated and left the country."

Mark did a six-month course in Farsi before arriving in Iran in the summer of 1979, followed by his wife. Cora Lijek wasn't a foreign service official but was given a contract because the embassy urgently needed Farsi speakers.

The couple couldn't have guessed how quickly they would find themselves in extraordinary circumstances.

The US embassy in Tehran consisted of 26 acres surrounded by more than a mile of wall, with only 13 marines to protect it. Not long before Mark's arrival it had been overrun by anti-American protestors who had left after a few hours.

So when demonstrators again broke in, early on 4 November 1979, Mark initially assumed the same thing might happen.

"Mainly the protest was because America had chosen to admit the Shah for medical treatment. The consular building, where Cora and I worked, was at least five minutes from the main chancery building and had its own door onto the street.

"The people who broke in forgot about us or initially didn't much care."

Mark Lijek, now retired, is impressed with how Ben Affleck stages the taking of the US embassy in Argo, a sequence filmed partly in Istanbul and partly on location in California.

"It was almost the first time I'd thought deeply about what it must have been like for the 50 or so Americans in the main building," he tells the BBC. "Those scenes were quite difficult to watch."

It is after the six Americans slip away from the embassy that Argo becomes a masterclass in reshaping reality into a Hollywood hit.

The screenplay has the escapees - Mark and Cora Lijek, Bob Anders, Lee Schatz and Joe and Kathy Stafford - settling down to enforced cohabitation at the residence of the Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor.

In reality, after several nights - including one spent in the UK residential compound - the group was split between the Taylor house and the home of another Canadian official, John Sheardown.

Mark Lijek says he can see why Argo makes the switch. "That group dynamic builds the tension, I suppose, and makes it seem more dramatic when there's disagreement.

"Absolutely none of that happened," says Mark.

"It's true there could have been problems with documentation - it was our biggest vulnerability.

"But the Agency had done its homework and knew the Iranian border authorities habitually made no attempt to reconcile documents.

"Fortunately for us, there were very few Revolutionary Guards about. It's why we turned up for a flight at 5.30 in the morning; even they weren't zealous enough to be there that early.

"The truth is the immigration officers barely looked at us and we were processed out in the regular way. We got on the flight to Zurich and then we were taken to the US ambassador's residence in Berne. It was that straightforward."

The six were meant to live in Florida under assumed names until the release of other embassy personnel held hostage in Tehran, which came in January 1981. But the plan was dropped when reports of the escape appeared in newspapers.

In 1981, a TV movie called Escape from Iran: The Canadian Caper told the story minus the CIA's involvement. The agency didn't admit its role until 1997.

Mark says it came as a relief when he could finally talk openly about the events in Iran. He's a fan of Argo and takes a wryly amused view of how it burnishes the truth to dramatic effect.

Of course, Mark is wise to the ways of film-makers. Back in the 1980s, he was briefly in movies himself.