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American moviegoers flocked to theaters this weekend to see Ben Affleck's long-anticipated thriller Argo, which has been generating headlines since it was first screened at the Toronto Film Festival last month.聽

Based on a true story about how the CIA smuggled six American diplomats out of Iran after the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy, the film opened on Oct. 12 and came in at No. 2 in box office sales over the weekend, after "Taken 2" (an action film starring Liam Neeson). By Oct. 15, Argo held the top spot.聽

But inside聽Iran, where the decision by a group of Iranian students to storm the US Embassy and hold Americans hostage for 444 days is still controversial and vibrantly debated, the press has paid Argo scant attention. The few comments the film has received are generally negative 鈥� Iran's state-run IRNA news agency called Argo " to confront the Islamic Revolution" 鈥� and聽replete with complaints that the movie portrays all Iranians as stereotypically aggressive and unrefined and fails to give viewers enough historical context.聽(Pirated copies of American films typically become available in Iran a few months before the films open in the US, and are easily accessed by the public.)

鈥�Argo makes the people of Iran look like they have no self-determination, and indisputably support violence,鈥� 聽for the popular Iran-based film magazine website, Moviemag.聽聽鈥淔or me, as an Iranian 鈥� this makes [the storyline behind] Argo much less believable.鈥�

Iran鈥檚 semi-official Fars News Agency聽labels Argo 鈥渁nti-Iranian" and painted the film as a flop. Citing unidentified "news agencies," it asserted that Argo only聽managed to reach second place in the US and Canada because the filmmakers artificially boosted sales for free to random people. 聽

Argo聽鈥渨as unable to become a box office hit in spite of considerable advertisement," Fars wrote.聽鈥淭he filmmakers tried very hard and used a variety of methods to increase ticket sales, but they were unsuccessful. 鈥� Even though 鈥楾aken 2鈥� was in its second week, Argo still couldn鈥檛 beat it to first place in the box office 鈥� due to a lack of interest among its own [North American] audience.鈥�

Moviemag, the privately owned online film magazine, is more sober in its assessment of the film, acknowledging Ben Affleck鈥檚 strong directorial skill and the film鈥檚 attention-grabbing story line and聽giving the film a four out of five star rating.

"If I were to set aside issues [with how Iran is portrayed], I must admit that Argo is one of this year鈥檚 best movies, and expect it to be awarded an Oscar for Best Director and Best Supporting Actor for Alan Arkin鈥檚 role," he writes.聽

鈥淲ithout a doubt, a non-Iranian viewer will highly enjoy seeing Argo because the story is strong and keeps the viewer鈥檚 attention through to the end,鈥� he adds. 鈥淏ut for an Iranian who counts this subject as part of our country鈥檚 history, the view may be a bit different.鈥�

Almost all coverage of Argo also noted that the film鈥檚 Toronto Film Festival debut, Sept. 7, is the same day Canada closed its embassy this year in Tehran and announced the expulsion of Iran鈥檚 diplomats from Ottawa. 聽 聽

鈥淧erhaps it was a coincidence,鈥� writes Mr. Karimi for Moviemag. 鈥淏ut for [the embassy closure] to take place during the Toronto Film Festival, right when this film was being screened, somewhat undermines the theory that this happened by accident.鈥�

Follow Roshanak Taghavi on Twitter at聽.

(This article was updated after first posting to correct the spelling of the capital of Canada.)