Israeli creators reach out to an enemy in series ‘Tehran’
Things are not as they seem in the new Apple TV+ series “Tehran”— as it should be in a spy thriller.
The series opens with a commercial flight from Jordan to India that’s suddenly diverted to Iran. A few of the passengers on board have secrets. Those secrets will soon havewar jets scrambling and a covert manhunt launching.
As audacious as the premise, “Tehran” is equally bold: an Israeli production that offers viewers a sympathetic view of Iran— one of Israel’s greatest foes— without anyone from the production setting foot in the Islamic Republic.
“The core of the showis dealing with the question of identity, nationality, immigration and family roots,” Moshe Zonder, the show’s co-creator and co-writer, says. “It asks howwe connect to them and our obligation to them and canwe get free fromthem? This is relevant to everyone on the globe.”
The show’s eight episodes aired in Israel in June and July, to largely rave reviews. The espionage thriller, with dialogue in
Hebrew, English and Farsi, is nowon Apple TV+.
“Tehran” centers on a computer hacker-agent undertaking her first mission in Iran’s capital. When the mission goes wrong, the agent has to survive by her wits.
With several of the same actors and featuring a woman spy dealing with Middle Eastern and Central Asian intrigue at its center, some viewers may see similarities with “Homeland.”
But while that Showtime series explored hownotions of good and evil can become corrupt and twisted on the international stage, “Tehran” is about making connections across ideological borders.
“There is not one clear enemy. It’s not about one side against the other. It’s really about people,” Niv Sultan, an Israeli actor who plays the “Tehran” spy, says. “For the first time, we’re showing a different point of view of this conflict.”
The setting of the series is definitely not as it seems. Sections of the Greek capital Athens stood in for Tehran after co-creator Dana Eden visited andwas struck by the visual similarities between the cities. Israelis are banned from visiting Iran.
Turning Athens into Tehran meant replacing lamp posts, license plates and street signs, aswell as adding street vendors and storefront signs. The Athens airportwas used to mimic the one in Tehran and, in one scene, a huge building-sized mural depicts an ayatollah, an addition thanks to computer special effects.
Zonder— who served as a head writer on the first season of “Fauda,” the groundbreaking action series on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict— spent years researching and writing “Tehran.”
The two series share an attempt to humanize enemies. In “Fauda,” Zonder showed howaHamas leader with Israeli blood on his handswas also a family man, much like he does with the main Iranian security officer chasing the heroine in “Tehran.”
Zonder said he reached back to his days as an investigative journalist when hewould sit down withHamas and PLO leaders and interview them to understand their point of view.
“I alwayswant to cross borders— physically and mentally— in order to meet the one that I’ve been told allmy life ismy enemy,” he said.
While today Iran and Israel are mortal enemies, the series teases out their shared history and the respect Israelis and Iranians had for each others’ cultures before the Islamic Revolution.
The filmmakers are hoping that some in Iran will find away to see the showand be touched that Israelis are reaching out.
“Although it’s not a documentary, it is very important to us that people from Iran will see the showand at least some of them will feel that some of the characters are representative,” Zonder said.