The Fall of a Shah (2009)
BBC

Description

The Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi ruled Iran from September 1941 to February 1979. From the start, he was determined to transform his impoverished and feudal country into a modern industrialised nation.

To BBC documentary makers who tracked most of his reign, he made a fascinating subject. He was seen as regal, autocratic and over ambitious.

But the BBC, his ally America, and even the Shah himself were slow to spot the forces that would prove to be his real undoing. The Islamic revolution toppled the Shah and brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power in 1979.

It was the first religious revolution in modern history and the first televised revolution ever. Day after day, the world woke up to images of Ayatollah Khomeini defying the Shah and the Americans. For the first time the world witnessed the power of political Islam to change societies.

Tags

1970s, Islam, Iran

Editorial review

7.5 Documentary-Review.com | D. Brecker

This two-part documentary explores the events leading up to the Iranian revolution in 1979, when the Shah was ousted and Ayatollah Khomeini came to power. It shows how the Shah's megalomaniac tendencies disconnected him from his people, and how disgruntled conservative religious leaders were able to turn popular discontent into a revolutionary force, allowing Khomeini to take over government. Series deserves a follow-up on events after the revolution.

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