Tehran is a modern-time spy drama thriller set in the Iranian capital, which is made to look better than in other movies. The city is presented in its splendor, with its bright lights, clean streets and mountain vistas. The series is created by Moshe Zonder for Israeli public television, not for a private channel, but, the always thriving Apple TV+ bought the international distribution rights and all went for the best. The first season was awarded an Emmy for Best Drama Series, like the previously reviewed Money Heist (La casa de papel) received in 2018.
Tehran Season One Poster
Plot
A hacker girl and Mossad asset of Iranian origin has been infiltrated in Tehran with a special mission. She had to disable a nuclear reactor, by penetrating the energy plant’s server. She fails, but she found out that this can be done more simply by neutralizing the Iranian Army’s Defense Radar. An intricate plan involving a local hacker who unfortunately was very excited.
Nothing reasonable happening in the Tehran show is the norm. It’s not reasonable for a national entity to organize undercover operations in a foreign territory just “to prevent” something. Israel, through Mossad, wants to destroy Tehran nuclear plant to prevent the Iranians to create atomic bombs of their own. If the girl wouldn’t disable the reactor herself, the Israelis were considering attacking the plant with their Air Force. But they want it simple, they want to fly undetected and strike in the middle, leaving Tehran in darkness.
Let me explain. Israel and Iran are not the best friends in the world. Despite that in 1948 Iran was the second Muslim country (the first one being Turkey) to recognize the newly created state of Israel, despite that Israel was in debt for some oil acquired before the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the two states are not opening to any collaboration. After the Soviet Union collapse and Iraq’s annihilation, Israel and Iran remain the most influential powers in the Middle East.
In 1981, the persecuted Israelis, projecting the Holocaust guilt on everybody, created the Begin Doctrine, eh, not quite “created”, better said “formulated”, or “established” the idea. It was known by that name, when then PM Menachem Begin praised Israeli Air Forces after they destroyed the unfinished Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center, near Baghdad. He said that the strike was an act of anticipatory self-defense and a long-term national commitment against enemies who develop weapons of mass destruction and turned against Israel.
In the Tehran show, concerned about Iran and its nuclear capabilities, Israel prepares a counter-proliferation preventive strike. Tamar, the heroine, is a descendant of one of the world’s oldest and most historically significant Jewish communities, the Jews of Iran. She was born in Tehran but raised in Israel. We don’t know the details of her implication in Mossad, but we learn that the organization she is part of is ruthless and takes no prisoners.
Her nemesis is Faraz Kamali, a sort of security chief in something called the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Very intelligent, very cunning, he drives you to root for him. You root for the girl too, you don’t want her to be caught, but you also don’t like the Israelis to succeed in the strike. Iran has its own problems with the fanatics in charge, it doesn’t need another disaster from outside. But almost exactly like the pseudo-secular Turkish government, Israeli authorities consider everybody an enemy and only barely tolerate their friends. Also, any damage is collateral. There are plenty of contradictions, the Mossad manages to save a fallen pilot, a real collateral damage and kills in cold blood valuable assets operating undercover for many years “in the field”.
The second season ends in a sort of limbo, it is open to continuing, but at the same time is less coherent than the first. You learn about the discrepancies between the “normal people” and the high-ranked members of the Islamic Revolution Guards, exactly like in Mao’s China, or in Romania under Ceaușescu. You’ll watch and maybe learn.
Tehran Season Two Poster
[source of all pics: imdb.com]
Tehran – Cast
Niv Sultan is Tamar Rabinyan. Shaun Toub is Faraz Kamali. Shervin Alenabi is Milad ‘Sick-Boy’ Kahani. He is Tamar’s fellow hacker and future lover. Contrary to what’s expected from him, he is quite dim and his conduit represents a continuous danger for everyone around, from the moment you met him, through the show’s end. Shila Ommi is Nahid Kamali, Faraz Kamali’s troubled wife. She has her reasons to be how she is. Arash Marandi is Ali Aghazadeh, Kamali’s bright subordinate. A fox, a wolf, a true sleuth. Vassilis Koukalani is General Qasem Mohammadi, a beast. You’ll discover on your own if you’ll watch the show. Menashe Noy is Meir Gorev, the Mossad chief in the first season. Liraz Charhi is Yael Kadosh, Tamar’s handler in the first season. You may recognize her from Turn Left at the End of the World. Darius Homayoun is Peyman Mohammadi, General Mohammadi’s son, who appeared in the second season. Navid Negahban is Masoud Tabrizi ‘Shahin’, a Mossad asset working undercover as a Tourism Agency owner. Glenn Close is Marjan Montazeri, a psychotherapist, another asset who appears in the second season. Sara von Schwarze is Yulia Magen, the second season’s Mossad chief. A gal without conscience. Sia Alipour is Vahid Nemati, a privileged scion owning a training club, a guy close to “the Beyzade” Peyman.
Trailer
I have been very disappointed when I remembered the Iran episode in Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown. In the closing sequences, he was drinking beer at an “underground” rare cars race with the Tehran elite’s progeny. In the same episode, it was mentioned that the Iranian pair who invited him to the mountains for a meal and a friendly conspiratorial chat, the male even being an accredited American press correspondent, had been arrested by the Revolutionary Guards. Maybe Bourdain didn’t realize the contradiction then, but his mingling with the spoiled brats after previously agreeing about the rotten nature of the regime is proof of a deep lack of consideration, unexpected from a guy with such a higher sensibility level.
Blessed with very good actors, no matter the discrepancies in the script, the exaggerations, and the fabulations, Tehran is a show you’ll love despite the sour taste you’ll experience from time to time.
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