If you are looking for something to watch this holiday weekend, I highly recommend “Our Man in Tehran,” a two-part PBS Frontline documentary. It provides an absolutely fascinating window into Iran, unlike anything I have ever seen before.
The film is narrated by Thomas Erdbrink, a New York Times correspondent based in Tehran. Erdbrink’s long and unique experience in Iran gives him an extraordinary perspective on the country, one unmatched by any other western journalist. In 2003 he married Newsha Tavakolian, an Iranian artist and photojournalist, and they have lived in Tehran ever since. The loving but argumentative relationship between Erdbrink and Tavakolian is worth the price of admission, but so too is the remarkable range of personalities and stories in the documentary. I have never before seen such an intimate portrait of Iran.
The film’s central theme is the heavy human cost of the Iranian theocracy’s use of law as a bulwark against social change. The whole documentary is unforgettable and often quite moving. Part One is available here on the PBS website and Part Two is available here.
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