Navid Khonsari, a forty-four-year-old Iranian developer, is no stranger to public outcry over his video games. Between 2001 and 2005, he worked at Rockstar Games and was a director of production on a number of titles in the Grand Theft Auto series, which has never been far from controversy due to its violent content. But Khonsari’s latest project has attracted a different kind of opprobrium: he has been branded a U.S. spy by the newspapers in Iran, an accusation that prevents him from safely returning to the country he fled thirty-four years ago.
“The Iranian revolution of 1979 is a defining story for me,” Khonsari told me, “and it’s a story that I keep coming back to.” Khonsari had left Rockstar to focus on documentary scripts that he was writing in his spare time, but after founding a development studio with his wife in 2010, he began to look for a subject for a game. “With the continuing tensions between the West and Iran, and the Arab Spring, the time was right to highlight the universal themes of revolution.”
The game, simply titled “1979 Revolution,” follows a character named Reza, a young photojournalist living in Tehran during the tumultuous days of the Iranian revolution, when the U.S.-supported Pahlavi dynasty was overthrown and replaced with an Islamic republic. While Reza isn’t politically or religiously motivated, he is inspired by the idea of change, and incensed by the brutal death of his cousin. He joins the revolution and eventually becomes a key player in its success. The game’s plot extends through the hostage crisis and into the violent and uneasy early days of the new regime, when Reza is betrayed by both the revolution and his best friend.
Eschewing the first-person-shooter template for a more interactive adventure-game format, “1979 Revolution” lets players explore Tehran and complete mini-games, their choices shaping the story as it progresses. While sabotaging power grids and hurling rocks at police is a departure from the shooting and carjacking of Grand Theft Auto, Khonsari views his games as more alike than not. “In ‘1979 Revolution,’ like Grand Theft Auto and Max Payne, narrative is at the heart of the experience,” he said. “The main difference is that my game is set in a real place and time—accountable to history.”
Though the game is a work of fiction, it’s informed by Khonsari’s experiences living in Tehran in the days leading up to the revolution. It was a childhood filled with cultural juxtapositions: Khonsari’s bedroom was plastered with “Star Wars” posters, while his family’s apartment building was filled with the ducks, chicken, or sheep often presented to his father, a surgeon, as payment for treating patients from a nearby village. “I remember jumping over bonfires in the streets as we celebrated the Zoroastrian holiday of Chahārshanbe Suri before going back inside to watch the ‘Donny & Marie’ show with my family,” he said.
Khonsari hopes to infuse the game with the emotions he felt on the streets as a young boy, using graphic-novel-esque illustrations, historical photography, and stock footage. During the revolution’s early days, Khonsari’s grandfather took him into the streets to see the demonstrations, so he could witness a pivotal moment in the country’s history. “The streets were filled with people and soldiers; helicopters flew overhead as military vehicles roared down major boulevards,” he said. “I felt like I was in a movie.” To recreate those scenes, Khonsari has collaborated with Michel Setboun, a French photojournalist who documented both sides of the revolution. As Reza, players can take photographs in the game and compare their images with the ones taken by Setboun.
When Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini arrived in Iran, Khonsari and his classmates were instructed to tear pictures of the previous regime’s Shah out of their textbooks, and set them on fire. “All the girls in our class were separated from the boys, and the women in our family had to start covering their hair,” he recalled. Fearing their sons would be drafted into the Army, Khonsari’s parents decided to flee the country.
Khonsari’s father spent three months formulating an escape plan. It was a secret even from the family’s closest friends. “If the new regime found out we planned to defect, we could be in danger, or we could incriminate those members of our family who stayed behind,” Khonsari explained. Guards began to visit the house to interrogate his father about recent business trips and ask questions about the family’s political allegiances. Khonsari’s mother prepared a story for her sons to recount in these situations, when the boys were taken into a separate room for questioning. “It was an awesome responsibility at any age, particularly at that one,” Khonsari said.
Finally, on December 22, 1979, the family left for the airport, claiming to be visiting Canada for a holiday. Khonsari’s mother hung as much jewelry around her son’s neck and under his shirt as she could. “I wore an entire lifetime of her jewelry during our flight to Canada,” he recalled. As a young teen-ager in the suburbs of Ontario, Khonsari quickly adapted to his adopted country, immersing himself in the culture—movies, music, and video games such as Donkey Kong and Pitfall—even as his family continued to celebrate Persian rituals.
Khonsari’s multicultural identity is reflected in the game, with its Iranian subject matter and Western execution. Asked whether he’s making the game for a Western or an Iranian audience, Khonsari responded, “We want to engage everyone, regardless of their race, gender, or age.” The game, which is set to launch on the iPad next spring, will be released in English, Farsi, and Arabic versions. He has made every effort to insure the game’s story isn’t polemical, despite his belief that it would have been easier to raise capital had the project taken a clear political stance. Instead, Khonsari has turned to the crowdfunding site Kickstarter to support the final stages of development (though he is adamant that “the game’s completion is not dependent on the campaign”).
Khonsari believes that an international audience will respond to the difficult subject matter precisely because it is a video game. “Players can engage in a more truthful, raw, political, and mature content,” he said. “We want to go beyond the cinematic storytelling that the film ‘Argo’ started and bring a new level of understanding to this influential time period.” (Incidentally, the game stars Farshad Farahat, who appeared in the Oscar-winning film as a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.)
While the controversy has no doubt increased awareness of the game, that exposure has come at a cost. According to Khonsari, the game’s concept artist was forced to flee Iran due to his association with the project, while many other members of the development team will be left off the game’s credits to protect their safety. Are these risks worthwhile? “In the end, if we can entertain while passively educate,” Khonsari said, “then yes, we will have accomplished our goals.”
