The Mission

Well before Iranian cinema found international recognition, Sayyad's low budget thriller was distributed in the US and Europe. It didn't hurt that the film is set in New York. Here a representative of Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic regime comes to assassinate an émigré, the Colonel (played by the multi-talented writer/director), formerly employed in the Shah's secret police. By a quirk of fate the would-be killer saves his target from a mugging, and is embraced by the unsuspecting Colonel and his family. Nuanced and even-handed.