DNA of Tehran isn’t good vs bad: Moshe Zonder
Co-creator Moshe Zonder said that Apple TV+ series Tehran was an opportunity for him to write down about life in Iran that’s beyond news headlines.
tehran television program
Tehran is streaming on Apple TV+. (Photo: Apple TV+)
After Fauda, Israeli television is beginning to get a worldwide audience and taking that to subsequent level is Apple TV+’s series Tehran. In an exclusive virtual conversation with indianexpress.com, creators Moshe Zonder and Dana Eden discussed the “DNA of Tehran”, how the series balances its politics and therefore the striking visual resemblance between Iran and Greece.
Writer and co-creator Moshe Zonder is understood everywhere the planet for his work on Fauda (as a writer). Moshe shared that apart from a screenwriter, he has been an investigative journalist and “always wanted to cross the border to possess the power to satisfy with my enemy, to interview him, to understand him personally.” He said, “For example, I visited the West Bank and Gaza Strip to satisfy the Hamas leaders and in fact , meeting them showed me that they’re very different from what I had examine in Israeli press. which led me to write down the primary season of Fauda.”
Moshe shared that the “DNA of Fauda” is additionally the “DNA of Tehran” and “it isn’t good vs bad. It’s not that Israel is sweet , and Iran is bad.” The co-creator said that for him, this was an opportunity to write down about life in Iran, “the life that’s beyond the headlines within the news.”
He added that the story deals with “identity, nationality, family roots and therefore the tragedy of immigration. Those things are relevant to everyone within the world, regardless of which tribe or country they belong to.”
The story of Tehran unfolds from two perspectives. From the Israeli side, we see Mossad agent Tamar (Niv Sultan) whose mission in Tehran goes awry, and from the Iranian side, we see the investigating officer Faraz (Shaun Toub). albeit they’re both fighting from opposing ends, they need more in common than they realise. “They have much in common, they might work together, they might be allies,” Moshe said.
To seem authentic in their storytelling, the manufacturers of Tehran had another challenge on their hands, which was to seek out an area that closely resembles the topographical landscape. Co-creator Dana Eden shared that she was researching quite lot for places to shoot at as they might not shoot in Tehran, but it had been during a family vacation in Athens that the thought clicked. “I saw that there are similarities within the topography of the town and therefore the architecture of the town . So very surprisingly, Athens looks tons like Tehran,” she shared.
