Recalling the success of the Israeli project 'Prisoners of War' which gave the world the basis for creating actually the best genre product in the serial environment, acclaimed ' Homeland' (by the way, Barack Obama’s favorite series), I without the slightest doubt began watching a new spy thriller shot according to the main classical patterns of the genre - ' Tehran' which tells about the confrontation between Israeli and Iranian special services against the backdrop of the growing nuclear threat from Iran.
The peculiarity of the project from the point of view of the scenario, mainly, is that a hacker spy working for the Mossad, ' Scorched' in the first series, and all subsequent events are more like a game in ' Catch-up' between a saboteur and the counterintelligence operatives of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (perhaps the most famous and powerful power structure of Iran, recognized as a terrorist organization in a number of Western countries).
Israel is mainly represented by the fragile and incredibly similar to Alicia Vikander beauty Niv Sultan, and Iranian counterintelligence is a high-ranking guard of the revolution, played by Sean Tobe, who is familiar with the image of the Iranian security officer (actually the same role the actor played in season 3 & #39; Homeland'). Niv Sultan and Sean Tobe are the main stars of the project with the most elaborate and deep images. The first, in principle, is pleasant to watch because of the external attractiveness and obvious talent of the actress, and the second depicts a kind of cruel, but at the same time, sometimes sentimental oriental sage. In secondary roles please Arash Mirandi (a promising young operative of the IRGC), Naveed Negaban (a related main character in Iran), Menash Noi (one of the leaders of the Mossad operation), Shervin Alenabi (Iranian hacker-opposition), Mo Bar-El (leader of the opposition), Esti Erushalmi (aunt of the main character with his personal drama).
Against the background of cat-and-mouse espionage games, the attitude towards the regime of internally displaced Israelis operating in Iran, who cannot return to their native Iran because of the threat to their lives, as well as the opposition youth, whose hatred for the rigid state regime is being used by Israeli agents, is revealed. The harshness of the regime is also revealed in detail through dialogues with police officers, interrogations in the IRGC’s dungeons, conflicts between oppositionists and people who support the government. Reporting is flourishing, even on their own relatives, with unexpected consequences for everyone. Moreover, even the employees of the special services, who at any time may lose their privileged position, cannot feel omnipotent and confident. All this perfectly and reliably reveals the inner life of Iran, which is mostly hidden from the eyes of a simple layman, which adds interest to what is happening on the screen.
Against the background of all these events, we are shown a classic espionage performance with an eye on modern information technologies, and the corresponding tasks that the Mossad leadership sets before its agents. The guards appear to be people far from stupid, constantly following the heels of the Mossad spies, always managing to escape at the last minute. Moreover, it is not possible to sympathize with any particular side - both use rather dirty methods, confusing personal and official, using all available means to achieve the goal. As a result, there is one fat question - who outplayed whom, but this is not so important, because ' Tehran' is a movie in which the process itself is important, not the result.
7.5 out of 10