By: A.R.
Some people watch shows for a laugh and others watch them to stay busy, but for me watching a show is so much more than that.
I spend a precious portion of my time familiarizing and connecting with the characters. And normally, that is after I’ve learnt everything there is to know about the plot!
But with Tehran (2020), I had doubts and it really did not look like something I would ever watch, just because it’s an Iranian/Israeli show on Apple TV+... How accurate could it possibly be?
Tehran is an espionage thriller, written and created by Moshe Zonder, famously known for Fauda (2015 -).
Tehran focuses mainly on the Iranian/Israeli conflict, and portrays their “hatred” for each other clearly.
It all starts when a passenger plane with Israeli citizens on board performs an emergency landing in Tehran. The Israelis are of course brought in for questioning before they are allowed to re-board the plane.
Now, while this is being handled, two women sneak into the airport bathroom and swap places with each other for good reasons.
Zhila Ghorbanifar, despite her job as an engineer at an electric company, is looking to get out of Iran due to sexual abuse at work.
The other disguised woman, Tamar Rabinyan (Niv Sultan), is a Mossad agent, who wants to enter Iran to hack their system and disable the Iranian nuclear reactor.
"I have nowhere to go. I'll only stay one night."
However, nothing goes as planned…for Tamar at least! She gets stuck in the country for longer than she expected and has to deal with the consequences that come with pretending she’s someone else.
In the midst of it all, she meets handsome Persian boy, Milad (Shervin Alenabi) on the “dark web”, who falls head over heels for the girl. What is a good story without some romance, anyway?
The show is set in Iran’s capital city, Tehran, but was filmed in Athens, Greece for obvious reasons. However, the creators of the TV show have successfully recreated a realistic version of Tehran, from the streets and the airport to the skyscrapers.
"I need your help. The police are looking for me."
Most of the actors playing Iranian characters are ethnically Persian, but some of them have a rocky Persian accent because they were raised elsewhere, which is probably the biggest weakness of the show.
However Niv Sultan, who portrays Tamar, does a great job speaking the language as fluently as possible despite her foreign background.
A non-Persian would have probably not even noticed it as they do not speak the language. But for someone who has spoken it all her life, it is quite annoying to see “locals” somewhat struggling to speak their mother tongue.
"I've never met that woman."
Tehran is full of action, drama and is just as romantic as one of your favorite rom-coms.
The love story between Tamar and Milad is enviable and their connection is authentically presented, from the moment they meet to the moment she meets his friends.
It shows some sides of Iran that people would never expect, both positive and negative ones, and is extremely educational for people who are not familiar with the country and its current state.
We are also introduced to Iran’s younger generation and their open mindset, as well as the country’s harsher realities such as death penalties and punishments.
As Tamar is trying to discreetly get out of the country, she also gets introduced to the Iranian rave party culture. The show authentically presents some of Iran’s wildest and illegal rave parties to the audience and to Tamar. The parties that are shown are ten times as big as any of the parties I’ve ever been to in European countries!
"There's no going back now."
The show is produced in three main languages; Persian, Israeli and English, but I would say there is a 50/50 switch between Persian and English and some Israeli in-between.
It also shows some aspects of the Israeli culture and their point of view on matters like the presence of Persian-Jews in Israel and Tamar adapting to the Persian culture after years of returning to her country of birth.
It's got a brilliant Iranian-American cast including Navid Negahban known from Aladdin (2019) and Shaun Toub from Iron Man (2008). But the main star of the show is Niv Sultan an Israeli actress known for Eliat (2018).
Tehran consists of eight episodes, each being 50 minutes long, and we’re waiting in anticipation each Friday to see how this thriller will end!
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