Bitter Coffee
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''Bitter Coffee'' ( ''Ghahve-ye Talkh'') is an Iranian historical-comedy series directed by
Mehran Modiri Mehran Modiri (; born 7 April 1967) is an Iranian peoples, Iranian director, actor, comedian, producer, screenwriter, host and singer. Career His various series, which have been broadcast through IRIB have set records in terms of viewership (an ...
and produced by Majid Aghagolian and Hamid Aghagolian. Three episodes are released at a time (roughly every week) on three VCD or one DVD, priced in
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
at 25000 rials (at that time approximately $2.50). The first set of episodes were released on 13 September 2010.


Background and controversy

Production of the series began in June 2009. ''Bitter Coffee'' was meant to be produced for television, to be broadcast by the IRIB, but due to various disagreements between IRIB and the series' producers, it didn't air. An alleged reason for disagreement between the producers and IRIB was that the producers required all of the advertisement for the series to be used as their payment, but IRIB refused to agree. Another rumoured reason was disagreement about the planned content of the series. IRIB officials eventually refused to show ''Bitter Coffee'', and the series was eventually distributed in VCD format, at various outlets throughout Iran.


Cast


Storyline

The series begins with history teacher Nima Zande-Karimi ( Siamak Ansari) realising that his extensive research on Persian and world history is of little use to financing his day-to-day life. He is about to leave Tehran for good to go back to his hometown by the name of
Darab Darab () is a city in the Central District (Darab County), Central District of Darab County, Fars province, Fars province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. History Darab is one of the oldest cities in Iran, and ...
, when he comes across young university student Roya Atabaki (Sahar Jafari-Jozani) who is researching for her final year dissertation, which is regarding the period 1198–1203, that is said to be a period of turmoil for Iran's ruling elite. Such turmoil that, very few books are available on that period for Roya's research. It is then that Nima receives an anonymous telephone call, which leads him to Niavaran Palace (currently a museum), where he is told to have a coffee and wait. The coffee (which is bitter) is ready and he duly drinks it, his sight becomes hazy, and when he manages to refocus he is in the year 1201 (1822 AD), and the story develops therein.


Reception

This was a very much anticipated series, as are all of Mehran Modiri's works, partly because it had been 4 years since his last major series work '' Baghe Mozaffar'', discounting the two short series he did for the new years 1387 and 88, and partly because it had been rumoured to be ready for release the previous winter, and then the new year period for 89, before eventually being released at the end of the summer of 1389, and not on television but as a DVD release. As a result, according to the series' website, half a million copies of the first installment were sold on the first day of release alone. At first ''Ghahve-ye Talkh'' was planned to be a 90-episode comedy series. Story of ''Bitter Coffee'', like recent Modiri works, is focused on critiquing aspects of Iranian social behaviour.


References


External links

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Persianesque Magazine

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{{Mehran Modiri Iranian comedy television series 2009 Iranian television series debuts 2010s Iranian television series Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting original programming Persian-language television shows