The Operative (2019)

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

Director:

Yuval Adler

Writers:

Yuval Adler, Yiftach R. Atir (novel)

Stars:

Diane Kruger, Martin Freeman, Cas Anvar

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Diane Kruger	...	Rachel
Martin Freeman	...	Thomas
Cas Anvar	...	Farhad
Rotem Keinan	...	Daniel
Lana Ettinger	...	Operative #2
Yoav Levi	...	Operative #1
Yohanan Herson	...	Joe
Rita Bäde	...	Woman donation
Annette Atzpodien	...	School secretary
Daniel Wandelt	...	Max
Julia Schneider	...	Woman in line
Mohsen Azimi	...	Custom offical
Mehdi Mosadekpur	...	Passport Offical
Gal Friedman	...	Operative #3
Ohad Knoller	...	Stefan

Storyline

Based on Yiftach R. Atir's book, The English Teacher, Yuval Adler's "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".

---

Plot Keywords:

topless female nudity | female nudity | female spy | spy | iran | 

---

Genres:

Thriller

---

Details

Country:

France Israel Germany USA

Language:

English German Persian Hebrew Kurdish French

Release Date:

24 July 2019 (France)

Also Known As:

Agente

Filming Locations:

MMC Studios, Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Company Credits

Production Co:

Black Bear Pictures, Bord Cadre Films, Le Pacte

Technical Specs

Runtime:

116 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

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.

User Reviews

Good cast, interesting premise, bad writing ...

All 5 stars go for the actors who did a solid job despite the weak material they were given.

The plot sounded very interesting, a female spy in modern Iran. But the writing was messy and no part of the story was told in a satisfying way.

At the beginning I liked the fact that usually the life of a spy can be quite uneventful (no James Bond antics here) but then the creators felt like they had to add some ("The Americans" kind of) action tension which proved to be quite unnecessary (and not very realistic, I mean she wasn't a trained action woman, however she was asked to do things she shouldn't).

And the whole thing with her handler was quite badly delivered, poor Martin Freeman and that Mossad council (or whatever this group of annoying people were) looked like some kind of hysterical caricatures. To my big surprised the weakest part of the movie was everything that had to do with the Mossad and the most interesting everything about Iran.

Oh and one more thing.. I noticed that the director was shooting Diane Kruger from weird angles and usually above the waist of from behind to the point that it was getting a distraction. I can only guess cause she was pregnant during filming (yes we googled about - congrats to Diane-mama). Well, next time maybe they should do an "Olivia Coleman", I mean she was a terrific spy in the Night Manager, even if 7-8 months preggers!