Rage Against the Regime; The Madness

“These are astonishing stories of resistance – resistance of the most immense kind, when everything is at stake. Yet still the Iranian people stand up, hold headscarves aloft, block the roads with their cars, take to the streets, refuse to be silenced. The least the rest of us can do is bear witness to their overwhelming courage, which is why watching these documentaries while the regime remains in power is so distressing – and necessary.”
Chitra Ramaswamy, The Guardian

“Certainly the stories show where passive resistance leads you in a country where social liberty is viewed as a threat to the system. One day we’ll perhaps hear testimonies of those enforcing social oppression in Iran — those who crush popular calls for change, subjugate women and persecute minorities. What exactly could the flipside view be here from the thuggish religious police? But this two-parter is fascinating enough for throwing light on this troubled recent history.”
James Jackson, The Times

“The overriding emotions were anger at Khamenei and his ruthless Revolutionary Guard, and sadness at the oppression of a country that all of them deeply love. Telling the story of Iran’s last 45 years through these voices was a simple but devastatingly effective device.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“This TV technique, showing interviewees arriving on set before the questions start to fly, has become ubiquitous over the past few years. You’ll see it in everything from political documentaries to pop retrospectives and reality shows. But it’s overused, and a distraction when the material is as shocking and absorbing as the testimonies in the two-part Rage Against The Regime: Iran. Director James Newton should have trusted his subjects, all now living in exile and afraid for their lives, to engage our attention with the power of their stories.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Setup concluded, you can sit back and relax knowing you are in the hands of an expert team who are about to deliver a slick conspiracy thriller that is a cut above the rest. Precision-engineered plot machinery can be heard purring into life. Clues and red herrings are patted into place by unobtrusive hands. Muncie is given a trademark coat and a random stranger to comment on it so everybody is reminded that this is a bit better than all those shows that would simply give him the coat to look good.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“Subtle The Madness is not, hectoring about hot-button issues like a teenage activist with a megaphone. Yet if the issues are familiar, The Madness is still dangerously habit-forming. Colman Domingo is a powerhouse in the lead, his permanently worried eyes just right for a series predicated on misgivings, and the whole eight hours is exceedingly well put together – clever camerawork and editing means that Muncie’s descent into trust-no-one paranoia reflects the viewer’s.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph