''Our Man in Tehran'' is a 2013 Canadian documentary film, profiling the role of

Kenneth D. Taylor Kenneth Douglas Taylor (October 5, 1934 – October 15, 2015) was a Canadian diplomat, educator and businessman, best known for his role in the 1979 covert operation called the "Canadian Caper" when he was the Canadian ambassador to Iran. With ...

, Canada's ambassador to

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 ...

in the 1970s, in helping six American hostages escape from Iran during the

Iran hostage crisis The Iran hostage crisis () began on November 4, 1979, when 66 Americans, including diplomats and other civilian personnel, were taken hostage at the Embassy of the United States in Tehran, with 52 of them being held until January 20, 1981. Th ...

of 1979-1980 by engineering the

Canadian Caper The "Canadian Caper" was the joint covert Extraction (military), rescue by the Government of Canada and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of six American diplomats who had evaded capture during the Iran hostage crisis, seizure of the U ...

."Movie review: Our Man in Tehran"
canada.com, September 19, 2013. The film premiered at the

2013 Toronto International Film Festival The 38th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 5 and 15, 2013. ''The Fifth Estate (film), The Fifth Estate'' was selected as the opening film and ''Life of Crime (film), Life o ...

, but was distributed to general audiences as a television film on

The Movie Network Crave (formerly The Movie Network or TMN) is a Television in Canada, Canadian premium television network and Streaming service provider, streaming service owned by the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE Inc. Launched in 1983 as the national service ...

. It was released in the United States on May 15, 2015. Several other political, journalism and diplomatic personalities involved in the events also appear in the film, including

Joe Clark Charles Joseph Clark (born June 5, 1939) is a Canadian businessman, writer, and retired politician who served as the 16th prime minister of Canada from 1979 to 1980. He also served as Leader of the Official Opposition (Canada), leader of the ...

Flora MacDonald Flora MacDonald (1722 – 5 March 1790) is best known for helping Charles Edward Stuart evade government troops after the Battle of Culloden in April 1746. Her family had generally backed the government during the 1745 Rising, and MacDonald l ...

, Robert Anders, William Daugherty, Carole Jerome, Tony Mendez,

Joe Schlesinger Josef Schlesinger, (May 11, 1928 – February 11, 2019) was a Canadian foreign correspondent, television journalist, and author. Early life and career Schlesinger was born to a devout Jewish family in Vienna, Austria, on May 11, 1928. He was ra ...

, Zena Sheardown and

Gary Sick Gary G. Sick (born April 4, 1935) is an American academic and analyst of Middle East affairs, with special expertise on Iran, who served on the U.S. National Security Council under Presidents Ford, Carter, and for a couple weeks under Reagan as ...

. The film won five

Canadian Screen Awards The Canadian Screen Awards () are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media ( web series) productions. Given annually by the Academy ...

at the

3rd Canadian Screen Awards The 3rd Canadian Screen Awards were held on March 1, 2015, to honour achievements in Canadian film, television, and digital media production in 2014.Larry Weinstein Larry Weinstein (born 1956) is a Canadian film director of theatrical and television documentaries, performance films, and dramas. The majority of his films centre on musical subjects and the depiction of the creative process, while his other sub ...

), Best Photography in a Documentary Program or Factual Series ( John Minh Tran), Best Picture Editing in a Documentary Program or Factual Series ( Steve Weslak) and Best Sound in a Documentary, Factual or Lifestyle Program or Series (Martin Lee,

David McCallum David Keith McCallum (19 September 1933 – 25 September 2023) was a Scottish actor and musician, based in the United States. He gained wide recognition in the 1960s for playing secret agent Illya Kuryakin in the television series '' The Man fr ...

, Sanjay Mehta, Brennan Mercer, Jane Tattersall). The film was adapted in part from cowriter Robert Wright's 2010 book ''Our Man in Tehran''."Our Man in Tehran gives Ken Taylor his due at TIFF"
''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

'', August 28, 2013.

References

External links

* *
Our Man in Tehran
' at

Library and Archives Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; ) is the federal institution tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is the 16th largest library in the world. T ...

2013 films 2013 documentary films English-language Canadian films Canadian documentary television films The Movie Network original programming 2010 non-fiction books Canadian non-fiction books Non-fiction books adapted into films 2010s English-language films 2010s Canadian films English-language documentary films {{2010s-Canada-documentary-film-stub