Not ones to be outdone Iran’s government is funding a film about the American hostage crisis of 1979 in response to what they consider the “distorted” vision put forth in “Argo,” directed by Ben Affleck and which garnered major accolades at the Golden Globes this past weekend.

“The screenplay for ‘Setad Moshtarak’ (‘Chiefs of Staff’ in Farsi) was approved by the authorities and we expect to get the shooting budget shortly,” Iranian director Ata Salmanian (pictured below, at left) was quoted as saying yesterday by Iranian media.

The film “describes the release of twenty American hostages by Iranian revolutionaries at the beginning of the 1979 Islamic Revolution” commented Salmanian, who is also an actor. This film “could be the appropriate answer to the distorted views of certain films like ‘Argo’” about the occupation of the U.S. embassy in Tehran on 4 November 1979 by Iranian revolutionaries and the hostage-taking of American diplomats,’ he added.

Directed by actor Ben Affleck “Argo” tells the incredible but true story of the exfiltration of U.S. diplomats who had managed to escape and take refuge in the Canadian Embassy for a little over a month. The film won the Golden Globe for best director and best drama on Sunday.

The success of “Argo,” officially banned in Iran but surely widely seen by many there thanks to a thriving piracy market as well as the legion satellite dishes which Iranians seem to buy by the truckload, received little comment in Iran’s official press.

7Sobh daily (7:00 am, in Farsi), however, qualified Tuesday Golden Globes of being the “greatest politically-minded ceremony in the history of America’s cinema” and Argo of making a “ludicrous attempt at recreating the Iran of 1980.”

The newspaper also criticized the U.S. series “Homeland,” currently in its second season and centered on an Iranian terrorist plot, accusing it of being a “powerful propaganda machine for the CIA.”

SEE ALSO: ARGO, short long on thrills, short on history.