The Operative (2019)

Awards
- 1 win total

Diane Kruger is a very special beauty. And a very talented actress. A unique personality. This is her movie, she's on screen almost all the time. Martin Freeman is very natural and credible in the role of Thomas. Cas Anvar is just as good in the role of Farhad. But the film could have been much better, there are gaps in the script and in directing. Just 5 stars, all for Diane Kruger and the other actors.

8jeff-73494

Why all the bad reviews?

This film was certainly not as bad as some of the other reviews indicated. While not taking everything so seriously, the movie absolutely kept my interest, and there were some truly tense moments throughout the film. Definitely not boring at all, and the acting was excellent.

7fashinrashin

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 !

8taghiramzi

My Opinion as an Iranian

I think this movie shows relatively realistic image of Iran , Iranian people and clash between Iran and Israel. As an Iranian I enjoyed the movie. unlike some of similar movies about Iran , all Iranian characters are good hearted people with no Iranian interrogators or such. also I like that -despite having Israeli production- the involvement of Mossad on Iranian scientist assassination and sabotaging Iran's nuclear program is depicted without hesitation. Acting was good and Iran's streets and atmosphere shown believable and almost perfect ... there is no Opel Astra police cars or old Volvo Station wagons in Iran though. I gave is 8 of 10.

7zac_mills

(probably) down-to-earth spy thriller

Excellent slow boil espionage thriller. Flawless performances, brilliant screenplay and a slap in the face to expected norms.

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Did you know

Edit

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.