Tehran (TV Series)

Tehran was co-created by Moshe Zonder, Dana Eden, and Maor Kohn. Zonder and Omri Shenhar wrote the series, and Daniel Syrkin directed it. Dana Eden and Shula Spiegel were among its executive producers.[2] Mark Eliyahu composed the original music.[1] Zonder had previously served as head writer on the acclaimed Israeli series Fauda.[3]

The first season consists of eight episodes and was broadcast in Israel during June and July 2020 before its international premiere on Apple TV+.[5] Canadian company Cineflix acquired the series' distribution rights before its Israeli broadcast.[3] The dialogue weaves together Hebrew, English, and Farsi, reflecting the show's cross-cultural premise.[5]

The creators conducted two years of research prior to production, including meetings with former senior intelligence personnel, academics, and individuals who had emigrated from Iran.[1] The show's themes — identity, nationality, immigration, family roots, and the possibility of crossing ideological divides — were central to that research process.[5] Zonder described his creative motivation directly: "I always want to cross borders — physically and mentally — in order to meet the one that I've been told all my life is my enemy."[5] Lead actress Niv Sultan echoed that vision, saying the series was not about "one side against the other," but "really about people."[5]

The series opens at Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran, where Tamar exchanges clothing and identities in an airport bathroom with Jila Ghorbanifar, a Persian woman employed by a Tehran electric company who collaborates with Israeli intelligence. Tamar's initial mission is to disrupt Tehran's power supply so that the Israeli Air Force can attack Iran's nuclear program.[3]

After her cover is exposed, Tamar moves through the city alone, seeks shelter with an aunt whose husband is an Iranian Ministry of Justice official, joins young anti-regime activists, and falls in love with Milad, a hacker who does not know she is an Israeli agent.[3] The narrative alternates between Tamar's experiences on the ground in Tehran and Israeli intelligence operations in a Tel Aviv situation room.[3] The series uses Tamar's Iranian birth and childhood relocation to Israel as a central device: she rediscovers a country she left as a child, and the audience discovers it alongside her.[4]

The principal cast includes Niv Sultan as Tamar Rabinyan, Shaun Toub as Iranian detective Faraz Kamali, Navid Negahban as an Israeli spy handler, Shervin Alenabi as the hacker Milad, and Arash Marandi as Faraz's associate Ali.[3] Liraz Charhi appears as Mossad handler Yael Kadosh, while Menashe Noy also appears in the series.[6][7] Shaun Toub and Navid Negahban are Iranian-American actors who had previously worked together on the American series Homeland.[3] Iranian-born Israeli actress Sogand Fakheri appeared in the series as the character Razieh.[8]

Faraz Kamali is portrayed as a ruthless high-ranking detective who is simultaneously devoted to his cancer-stricken wife — a characterization the series uses to give Iranian antagonists personal and emotional dimensions beyond stereotype.[3] The character of Yael Kadosh begins the series as Tamar's Mossad handler, but the conclusion of the first season reveals she is a double agent working for the Islamic Republic.[6] Charhi described the revelation as giving the role far greater depth than she had initially perceived when first reading the script.[6]

The Iranian Jewish identity of Tamar's family is a major thematic thread. Her family remained in Iran for fifteen years after many Iranian Jews had fled around the time of the Islamic Revolution, and they continued to regard Iran as home even after emigrating. Tamar's father Mordechai is portrayed as an Iranian Jew who emigrated to Israel but feels an intensifying longing for the country he left behind.[3]

Because filming in Iran was impossible, the production used locations in Athens, Greece, to represent Tehran.[5] The transformation required replacing lamp posts, license plates, and street signs, adding vendors and storefront signage, using Athens's airport to stand in for Imam Khomeini International Airport, and digitally adding a building-sized mural of an ayatollah.[5] The illusion was thorough enough that Liraz Charhi recalled that she and Iranian actors on set initially believed they were walking through Iran and mistook production-design elements for real Iranian restaurants.[6]

The visual substitution was not universally convincing. The Jewish Review of Books reported that Iranian viewers were disappointed by geographic inaccuracies and by the depiction of Tehran's visual character.[3]

Niv Sultan prepared for the role by training in Krav Maga and studying Farsi.[5] The production combined Israeli performers with Iranian expatriate actors, with much of the dialogue delivered in Farsi.[3] Charhi said the series was produced by two women who took the chance of filming in Greece during the COVID-19 period.[6]

Season 2 was renewed for Apple TV+ after the series debuted in Israel in June 2020.[7] It premiered with a double episode on Kan 11 on May 5, 2022, and on Apple TV+ on May 6, by which point the series had already won the International Emmy Award for Best Drama.[2] The second season continued to follow Tamar on an undercover mission in Iran and deepened the relationship between Tamar and Milad, examining the similarities and tensions between young Israelis and young Iranians.[1]

The season also introduced Marjan Montazeri, played by Glenn Close — a British-born psychologist who moved to Iran after the fall of the shah, became disillusioned with the post-revolutionary regime, and later worked for the Mossad.[1] The addition of Close to the cast marked a significant expansion of the series' international profile.[9]

The third season premiered on Kan 11 in December 2024 and subsequently became available internationally on Apple TV+, which began streaming it in January 2026 with new episodes released weekly through February 27, 2026.[10] Hugh Laurie joined the cast for the third season.[10]

The series earned strong early critical attention internationally. Shortly after its American debut, it held a 92% critics' score and an 81% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.[11] Reviews praised the series for depicting Iranian dissidents and presenting differing Iranian perspectives on politics, religion, and culture, while Variety offered a mixed assessment that criticized the show's plausibility, tension management, and episode length.[11]

Former Mossad director-general Shabtai Shavit acknowledged inaccuracies in the series but said it was made for a general audience and that it was a success.[12] The series gained particular traction during the coronavirus pandemic, and its female-centered espionage premise distinguished it from many comparable productions.[12] One Iranian-American commentator described it as sufficiently convincing that he wondered whether its creators might themselves be former intelligence officers who had spent time in the city, characterizing the show as combining suspense, plot twists, sophisticated spycraft, and fully realized characters.[4]

The Iranian government-aligned newspaper Kayhan characterized Tehran as an "anti-Iranian production" and alleged that it revealed the "pro-West and promiscuous" agenda of anti-Iran activists. The show's creators, by contrast, expressed hope that audiences inside Iran would find ways to watch the series.[5]

During production of the first season in Athens, creator Moshe Zonder said the producers suspected Iranian intelligence had taken an interest in the project. He linked that suspicion to an alleged case involving four Jewish women of Iranian descent, one of whom was reportedly recruited by an Iranian operative and sent to audition for the series; Zonder stated she did not pass the audition.[13] Some Iranian-born viewers also recognized Athens locations used in the show and inquired about where those scenes had been filmed.[13]

Israel's actors' union Shaham and the Israeli Association of Film and Television Professionals petitioned the Supreme Court of Israel, arguing that Israelis made up less than 75% of the cast and crew, that much of the production had taken place in Greece, and that the series therefore should not qualify for Israeli government funding or designation as an Israeli production. Kan disputed those claims and noted that 80% of the second season's funding came from Apple TV+. The Producers Union warned that the petition posed a threat to Israeli-international co-productions more broadly.[9]