Pouring Water on Troubled Oil
A poetic archival documentary following the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas on his journey through Iran in 1951 on an assignment to write a film script for the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
Pouring Water on Troubled Oil is a poetic documentary chronicling Welsh poet Dylan Thomas’s 1951 journey to Iran. Commissioned by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company to script a film endorsing its oil operations in Abadan, Thomas instead discovers the unrest of a nation, as he witnesses the political tension, poverty and culture of exploitation steeped in the oil trade. With narration by Michael Sheen bringing Thomas’s words to life, and layered with archival imagery and immersive soundscapes, the film transforms spoken word into a lament for truth. Pouring Water on Troubled Oil reflects on the enduring legacies of colonialism and imperialism, contrasting Iranian lived experience with the propaganda promoted by the now-rebranded British Petroleum (BP). The film treads through the murky waters surrounding Britain’s exploits in Iran, revealing a country on the verge of revolution.
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