The Operative

2019
TV-MA
1h 56m

IMDb RATING

5.8/10

7.8K

YOUR RATING

'The Operative' is a taut psychological thriller about a young Western woman (Diane Kruger) recruited by the Mossad to go undercover in Tehran where she becomes entangled in a complex triangle with her handler (Martin Freeman) and her subject (Cas Anvar).

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Action Drama Mystery Thriller

A woman is recruited by the Mossad to work undercover in Tehran.A woman is recruited by the Mossad to work undercover in Tehran.A woman is recruited by the Mossad to work undercover in Tehran.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.8/10

7.8K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win

Trivia
Some scenes were actually filmed in Tehran secretly. The Iranian government would not allow an Israel filmmaker to film in the streets of Tehran so Yuval Adler hired a German film company who then hired a French film company to shoot scenes in Tehran and never told the citizens what it was for.

Goofs
When Rachel is entering Iran, at passport control the agent speaks to the agent next to him, and the captions say he's speaking in Arabic. The language of Iran is Persian (also called Farsi), which has no relationship to Arabic.

Quotes
Farhad: The people here all have many secrets. There's too many rules in Iran. So... If uh, you want to drink, you keep it a secret. You marry a woman who is a... Yu understand. She, she had sex. You keep it secret. If you go to a party or a cultural thing too controversial, you keep it secret. You don't want to fast on Ramadan? Eat in secret. It's the way of life here. Like a second nature.

What a filthy business (Mossad isnt for sissies)

Good film, YES you have to pay attention. The first half of the film is excellent , it gets choppy and the narrative nearly goes off the rails.

There s a key moment in the film when the handler meets the main character's father, "The liberal Englishman academic", who is horrified of the thought of Israel. This is a position I have never seen said out loud in film or print by WESTERN media. Its tectonic. I was really surprised because Israel is an artifice, (its just no one admits it).

The acting is amazing as usual Martin Freeman steals the movie (he has nearly taken over from Phillip Seymour Hoffman) , and. Diane Kruger is EXCELLENT !