''The Frog'' ( fa, قورباغه, Ghoorbāgheh) is a

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...

and

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' Films * ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film * ''Mystery'' ( ...

series written, edited and directed by

Houman Seyyedi Houman Seyyedi ( fa, هومن سيدی , born November 29, 1980) is an Iranian actor, director, screenwriter and editor. He has received various accolades, including six Crystal Simorghs–making him the only director to have three wins in Spec ...

and produced by Ali Asadzadeh, produced in 2020–2021 in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. This series is the first series made by Houman Seyyedi, the first episode of which was supposed to be released on December 15, 2020, but the broadcast of this series was stopped by

court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...

order. Finally, the first part of this series was released on December 23, 2020.

Plot

On the

Chaharshanbe Suri Chaharshanbeh Suri or Charshanba Suri ( fa, چهارشنبه‌سوری, Čahāršanbe suri; ), is an Iranian festival of the fire dance celebrated on the eve of the last Wednesday of the year. It is the first festivity of the Nowruz Celebratio ...

day, three

friend Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague. In some cultures, the concept of ...

s named Ramin ( Saber Abr), Farid (Ashkan Hassanpour), and Javad (Shahrooz Del Afkar) after stealing the weapon of a wounded officer, rob Noori (

Navid Mohammadzadeh Navid Mohammadzadeh ( fa, نوید محمدزاده, born April 6, 1986) is an Iranian actor. He has received various accolades, including two Crystal Simorgh, four Hafez Awards, three Iran Cinema Celebration Awards and four Iran's Film Critics a ...

), Ramin's childhood classmate, who has become a rich and mysterious man...

Cast

Production

''The Frog'' series is the first series directed by Houman Seyyedi and is also Navid Mohammadzadeh's first series. ''The Frog'', which started filming in 2019 and stopped production due to the outbreak of the

Coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the com ...

, ended its filming in the summer of 2020 and was written in 15 episodes. The filming of the Frog project took about two years.

Distribution

Negotiations were held for the release of the series on the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

platform, but no agreement was reached, and the series was finally released on the Namava platform. The first episode of this series was a free impression of the film

La Haine ''La Haine'' (, ; released in the United States as ''Hate'') is a 1995 French crime drama film written, co-edited, and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. Starring Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé and Saïd Taghmaoui, the film chronicles a day and nig ...

. 48 hours after the release of this episode, the

series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used in ...

set a record with 40 million views in

ian

home video Home video is prerecorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD, Blu-ray and streaming me ...

Episodes

Reception

Critical response

Massoud Farasati Massoud Farassati (also spelled ''Farasati'' or ''Ferasati'', fa, مسعود فراستی) is an Iranian film critic. He used to regularly appear in the Iranian State Television programme ''Haft'', hosted by Fereydoun Jeyrani and later by Behr ...

criticized the series in Haft program and said: Brian O’Shea, CEO of The Exchange:

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, tt12922988 * Iranian television series Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting original programming