Iran blasts Argo Oscar win

Iranian state television has branded 'Argo' winning Best Picture at the Oscars 'an advertisement for the CIA', according to reports.

It added that the move to award Ben Affleck's film about the Iran hostage crisis was 'politically motivated'.

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Culture minister Mohammad Hosseini said that he believes that the film is part of the 'soft war' against Iran by the US, and that it represents a 'distorted history' of the events, based on the story of CIA operative Tony Mendez and his ingenious plot to rescue US hostages in Tehran in 1979.

It follows reports that Iranian director Ataollah Salmanian is to make his own film based on the events, intended to be 'an appropriate response to the ahistoric film Argo'.

It's also claimed that the depiction of the crowd violence in the film is exaggerated.

Tehran city council member Masoomeh Ebtekar, who was among the students who occupied the US embassy in 1979, says that director Affleck 'goes and shows scenes of a very violent and very angry mob throughout the film, it is never mentioned that these are a group of students'.

The film has not been released in theatres in Iran, though it's claimed that the film has been heavily bootlegged in the country.