Have you noticed how often the international news bulletins seem like preposterous, even ridiculous Hollywood inventions? Well, now that Canada’s issues with Argo have been resolved, sort of, Iran has seized the headlines by threatening to sue the producers of Ben Affleck’s Oscar-winning movie in an international court.

Why? Because of what is described as Argo’s unrealistic portrait of the country, described as “Iranophobic.”

News outlets this week reported that French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre (a.k.a. wife of the notorious terrorist Carlos the Jackal) has been visiting Tehran for talks with officials about how and where to file the lawsuit.

What happens next is fodder for a great guessing game, but some may fear Canada has been embarrassingly outmanoeuvred.

What did we do when Warner Brothers and Affleck came to the Toronto International Film Festival for the premiere of a movie that glorified the CIA and Hollywood while underplaying and even mocking Canada’s involvement in the thrilling rescue of six U.S. citizens? At great risk, Canadian diplomats were secretly sheltering the six in Tehran after angry Iranian mobs stormed the U.S. embassy and held more than 40 of its employees hostage, but in Argo, Canada was just a bit player.

Typically, we politely and firmly begged to differ. Canada’s former ambassador to Iran, Ken Taylor, led the charge. And his strategy paid off, at least to a limited degree. Here’s what our diplomacy achieved:

Ben Affleck agreed to remove the insulting and sarcastic postscript printed onscreen at the end of the movie when it was shown at TIFF and replace it with one written by Taylor, emphasizing the joint effort of Canada and the U.S. in achieving a happy ending.

Affleck thanked Canada at the Oscars.

Screenwriter Chris Terrio also thanked the other Canadian diplomat, the later John Sheardown, who provided shelter for the fugitives.

According to my sources, Affleck has also agreed to narrate a planned Canadian documentary telling the story from our perspective.

Meanwhile, the recently released DVD version of Argo offers some illuminating comments from Taylor and five of the six escapees, via a mini-documentary extra called Rescued From Tehran: We Were There.

Among the revelations you’ll find in this featurette is that Kathy Stafford prepared for her escape by reading Sheardown’s extensive collection of John le Carré thrillers while being his house guest. From le Carré she learned the importance of looking as if you know what you’re doing: advice that she followed when at Tehran airport with a fake Canadian passport waiting to board a flight.

Another is that CIA mastermind Tony Mendez, played by Affleck and portrayed as the true hero, says on camera, all these years later: “I felt good that the Canadians got credit. They deserved it.”

In the end, Ken Taylor and his wife, Pat Taylor, were cheering for Argo to win the Oscar.

So what will Iran will achieve with its more sensational, saber-rattling approach?

My prediction: Zilch.

But the threat certainly does catch the world’s attention. And it raises some intriguing questions.

What would have happened if Canada had sued the makers of Argo instead of making nice?

How different would our cultural history be if we had stood up to Hollywood over the past 100 years to prevent Canada from being misrepresented in countless movies? Instead we allowed U.S. producers, studios and tycoons to annex our theatres as if they owned Canada, effectively brainwashing our audiences and preventing our film artists from making movies of our own to tell our own history our own way.

I’m just asking.

Following Iran’s lead would just be good for a laugh. But now that we have our own small and fragile film industry — recently celebrated at the Canadian Screen Awards — it’s time to strengthen it, the way we have successfully in the past strengthened our music industry, book world and TV production with huge success.

A good start would be to say yes to Starlight TV, the proposed new specialty channel that would show Canadian movies to all cable subscribers, all the time, and use most of the profits to finance production of more Canadian movies.

The cost: 46 cents a month to every cable subscriber.

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The upside: at long last, millions of Canadian movie lovers could watch our own stories told from our own point of view.

Ultimately, that’s the real answer to Argo.

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