Named for the Iranian capital in which it is set, “Tehran” is an edge-of-the-seat espionage thriller about an Israeli mission to disable a nuclear reactor — a task that’s left in the inexperienced hands of a young Mossad agent and master hacker on her first undercover assignment. Things don’t go according to plan as errors are made and relationships both romantic and familial complicate the operation and raise the stakes.
From co-creator Moshe Zonder, who wrote the first season of “Fauda,” it stars Niv Sultan in the central role and “Homeland’s” Shaun Toub and Navid Negahban —both born in Iran — in supporting roles. The eight-part Apple TV+ series will premiere three episodes on Sept. 25 and one installment per week thereafter.
“Our show is entertaining and full of action but we knew that it would be better if we [could] integrate the personal side of the characters, to make one thing lead to another … [and raise] the stakes to be as high as possible by integrating those two layers,” Zonder told the Journal. “The show is actually about identity, connection, devotion to your family and your roots and checking out what the price is for trying to break away from them.”
While it was co-creator Maor Kohn’s original idea five years ago, “Everything about Iran has fascinated me, the ayatollah regime and the young people who are demonstrating against the regime in the streets, risking their lives,” Zonder said. He endeavored to humanize characters like Toub’s security chief Faraz Kamali, who has to deal with a personal crisis as well as a national one.
“Our biggest challenge was to write the Iranian characters; to get under their skin and understand the way they feel, think and act,” Zonder said. “I was an investigative journalist before I became a screenwriter and it was always a challenge for me to cross the border physically and mentally, to learn about my enemy, the one I’ve been told that wants to kill me. When we were doing the research before writing, we looked at YouTube for example, and if you put it on mute, they looked Israeli. We are more the same than different. There are a lot of similarities between us.”
During their research, he and co-writer Omri Shenhar met and interviewed Mossad case officers who work counterintelligence on Iran’s nuclear program. For obvious reasons, they couldn’t go to Tehran at that stage or to shoot the series. Co-creator Dana Eden suggested Athens, Greece, as a stand-in, and director Daniel Syrkin and his team worked their magic.
As for their main character, Iranian-born Israeli Tamar Rabinyan, “We wanted our protagonist to be a woman. It was a political decision to put a young woman, this amazing hacker, in this tough macho world,” Zonder said.
It’s Sultan’s first international role, and learning to speak Farsi and training in the martial art krav maga were not her only hurdles. “It’s such a challenging role because Tamar combines so many layers within her,” the actress said. “Her journey is so interesting. She’s not the regular Mossad agent, saving the day. She’s brave, powerful and strong, but she’s also afraid and insecure and she makes mistakes.”
Of Moroccan Jewish heritage, Sultan grew up in Jerusalem, where she visits most weekends. “In the middle” between religious and secular, she has a strong connection to Judaism, her family and her city. “Faith is a very important thing for me,” she said.
Although she always dreamed of becoming an actress, the Tel Aviv entertainment world seemed out of reach. But after her military service, she moved there to study and landed TV series roles starting in 2013. She’s in rehearsals for a new series now. “ ‘Tehran’ is such an important story and I hope to keep on working in these kinds of things,” Sultan said. “I’m hoping to keep on doing things that interest me and challenge me and make me feel alive. I’m hoping for good things to come.”
Zonder’s Polish-born father escaped to Israel in 1935 and his mother, also Polish, moved to Canada after the war after losing her entire family in the Holocaust. “She came to Israel for a vacation in 1956 and met my father. They fell in love and she stayed here,” he said. He’s married with two sons, one who recently completed his military service and the other, who has just started it.
Zonder was studying to be a movie and TV director at the University of Tel Aviv when he “realized I was writing the scripts for half of my class,” he said. “I really love to direct actors but my heart is in the writing. I wrote five feature films and then started to write TV series.” He’s developing a new show now and has ideas for a second season of “Tehran,” but can’t share any details yet about either.
“Tehran” already has aired in Israel, and “the reaction was amazing,” Zonder said. “Many people saw it and loved it. While it was airing in Israel, there were mysterious bombings in Iran. Israel didn’t take responsibility, but everyone was thinking that the Mossad was connected to it.”
“Tehran” premieres on Sept. 25 on Apple TV+.
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