The Works UK Distribution has picked up UK rights from Sierra/Affinity to Rosewater, set to receive its European premiere on October 12 at the BFI London Film Festival.

Transmission Films has acquired Australian rights to The Daily Show host Jon Stewart’s tale of BBC journalist Maziar Bahari, who was imprisoned and tortured by Revolutionary Guards while covering the 2009 presidential election in Iran.

Gael Garcia Bernal stars alongside Kim Bodnia, Dimitri Leonidas and Shohreh Aghdashloo.

Stewart profiled the story as it developed on his TV show and eventually turned it into his feature debut after adapting Bahari’s book Then They Came For Me: A Family’s Story Of Love, Captivity And Survival.

OddLot Entertainment founder Gigi Pritzker, Scott Rudin, and Stewart produced, with Lila Yacoub, Eli Bush and Chris McShane serving as executive producers. OddLot Entertainment financed the project

The Works UK Distribution will release Rosewater in March 2015 and Transmission Films will release in Australia in January 2015.