Israeli TV Show ‘Tehran’ Debuts on Apple — Amizur Nachshoni
The producers hope that Tehran will be able to draw an international audience once it makes its debut on Apple and that it will become a talked-about hit as Fauda and Shtisel do.
The producers hope that Tehran will be able to draw an international audience once it makes its debut on Apple and that it will become a talked-about hit as Fauda and Shtisel do.
Image for post
Niv Sultan as a Mossad agent in ‘Tehran. ’
(Video courtesy כאן 11 | Screenshot courtesy Amizur Nachshoni)
‘We always felt that we were doing something good, ’ said Dana Eden, one of Tehran ‘s creators, the Israeli television series which recently wrapped up its first season on KAN 11 and will soon be broadcast on Apple TV+ internationally. “But it succeeded beyond our wildest dreams and for that, we are very grateful. ”
The producers hope that Tehran will be able to draw an international audience once it makes its debut on Apple and that it will become a talked-about hit as Fauda and Shtisel do. Neither Eden nor an Apple TV+ representative could give a date when it would show Tehran.
Tehran has become a must-see TV for a broad Israeli audience, rare in the streaming and bingeing era. Although KAN, the government channel, posted episodes of Tehran on its website after each broadcast that was available for free, the series was so popular that the majority chose to watch the 9:15 p. m. Broadcast on Mondays so they wouldn’t have to have a single day in suspense. And news events conspired to make the series even more topical: A series of explosions took place at military and nuclear sites around Iran during the weeks that Tehran was broadcast.
“I want to thank the Israeli public for making it a hit, for making its audience grow more week after week, ” she said. “We’ve been developing the show for six years and it’s really great to see it catch on. ”
The success is particularly sweet, as several networks, including, reportedly, Keshet, have turned the series down. While it has been reported that for the eight-part series, Apple paid $1 million per episode — huge money in the Israeli TV world operating on shoestring budgets — Eden wouldn’t confirm or deny this, saying only, “Apple paid a very nice price. ”
The series focuses on a strong female protagonist, Tamar (Niv Sultan), a young Iranian family Mossad agent sent to Tehran to destabilize Iran’s nuclear program. The lion’s share of the action takes place in Iran, and while its Mossad handlers and commanders, played by Menashe Noy and Liraz Charchi, are key characters, much of the cast consisted of Iranian actors who played both government agents and dissidents.
Iran’s dissident side was very rarely portrayed on the screen and it was fascinating to see the divisions among those dissidents who, in the talk of the show, ranged from rave-goers who basically fight for their right to party, to more leading political protesters, such as Milad (Shervin Alenabi), a hacker willing to use his skills to cripple the power grid and damage nuclear power plants.
The series also gave a showcase to the very talented Iranian acting diaspora, in addition to shedding light on the dissident world. Just as Europeans fleeing the Nazis brought a wealth of diversity and talent to Hollywood from the 1930s onwards, Iranians who wanted to live a life free of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s restrictions have been leaving the country for decades and a fair number have gone to act.
Video producer, Amizur Nachshoni, says that several of those actors most celebrated appear in Tehran. These include Navid Negahban who is remembered by Homeland viewers as Abu Nazir and who starred in Yuval Delshad’s Ophir-Award winning Israeli film Baba Joon. Negahban portrays the owner of a travel agency in Tehran that is assisting the Mossad.
Apple is set to begin showing Losing Alice, a psychological drama starring Ayelet Zurer who appeared in the film Angels & Demons, the sequel to The Da Vinci Code, opposite Tom Hanks. Losing Alice is running on hot in Israel and was also featured last spring at the global We Are One online film festival.
Apple TV+ is also involved in producing a miniseries about the Austrian-Jewish Hollywood star Hedy Lamarr, who was also an inventor, by Israel’s premier international star, Gal Gadot, and her production company. Gadot stars like Lamarr. Showtime originally developed the series but moved on to Apple.
While Shtisel is already a hit on Netflix, now there are dozens of Israeli series in different production stages, all of whose producers hope to become the next Tehran.
#Netflix #Israeliseries #series #Israel #Jewish #Apple #AmizurNachshoni #Amizur #Nachshoni #Tehran #TvShow #international #Kan #כאן #Iran #Fauda #Shtisel
Send comment
