Prelude to a Strike traces how right-wing Iranian diaspora groups—in coordination with Israel, the United States, and Saudi Arabia—co-opted grassroots Iranian struggles for democracy to sell the fantasy of foreign military intervention as the only way forward.
A
Original Documentary
Preludeto a Strike
What made a nation think bombs could bring freedom?
The Film
How a war was
sold as liberation
Drawing on interviews with 25 experts in the US, Europe, and Iran, as well as archival footage, the film traces how sanctions and then war undermined Iranians’ welfare, development, and their agency in creating political, economic, and social change.
The story moves through the 2009 protests, Obama-era sanctions and the JCPOA, Trump’s election and the end of the Nuclear Deal, the Woman, Life, Freedom movement and its co-optation by right-wing forces organized around Reza Pahlavi—culminating in the 12-Day War, the January protests, and the second US/Israeli war on Iran in 2026.
The film investigates how violent polarization constructed an imagined binary between Persian, secular, monarchist, and pro-Israel identity on one side and Iranian, Muslim, Islamic Republican, and Arab identity on the other—convincing Iranians that it was possible to wage war on the Islamic Republic without destroying Iran.
The road to war
A story built
over decades
- End of the Iran–Iraq War
- Green Movement protests
- The JCPOA is signed
- Trump’s first term and the path to withdrawal
- Maximum pressure
- Woman, Life, Freedom uprising
- Regional escalation
- The Twelve-Day War
- Nationwide protests
- The second war begins
Trailer
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first look
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Interviews
Inside the Story
Twenty-five experts across the US, Europe, and Iran trace the policies, media narratives, and political forces that made war imaginable.
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The Team
Made across
borders
Direction & Story
- Director
- Amir Arzanian
- Writers
- Amir Arzanian, Alex Shams
- Editor
- Mohammad Faraji
Production
- Producers
- Yahya Paya, Amir Arzanian
- Production Manager
- Chris Boyd
- Line Producers
- Mohammed Abdelbary, Layla Nayfeh, Arturo Martinez, Mohammad Ali Sheykhrabi, Sanjiev Johal
- Production Assistant
- Randa Jumean
Research & Camera
- Research Team
- Alex Shams, Jalil Kazemi Tabar, Sadegh Talebian, Hadjar Homaei, Hosna Sheikholeslami
- Directors of Photography
- Chancey June, Mustafa Zino, Amir Nejadnik, Amin Alaei
Executive & Partners
- Executive Producers
- Mehdi Hasan, Kiran Alvi, Juan Pablo Raymond, Yahya Paya, Amir Arzanian, Alex Shams
- Production
- Prelude to a Strike
- Post-Production
- Postdoc, Pollux Pictures
- Distribution
- Zeteo