Too often, news reports about Iran liken its president to a mouthpiece of anti-Semitism, and its government to an increasingly violent enemy of the Israeli state. How true these associations are is clearly debatable, but the empathy of many Iranians for the plight of the Jews during the Holocaust is not, a detail omitted by most media outlets. That’s why I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered a BBC article and accompanying video segment on the recent Iranian TV craze: “Zero Degree Turn”.

Admittedly, the name of this series brings to mind either a crappy action flick, or a physics problem gone bad, but what’s important is that it puts human faces on the suffering of Jews under the Nazis during World War II, and presents it in a dramatic and entertaining manner for a captivated Iranian audience.

The main character is a Paris-based Iranian diplomat of Palestinian descent, played by Shihab Hassini, who helps Jews flee the Vichy government during the Nazi occupation of France, and even (gasp!) falls in love with a Jewish woman. The hour-long miniseries is extremely well-made, even by Hollywood standards, and is the most expensive show ever aired on Channel 1, the state television station. And what’s more, it is even based on the true story of Abdol Hussein Sardawi, the charge d’affairs at the Iranian embassy in Paris.

Of course, an Iranian miniseries on an Iranian state-run network should never escape scrutiny, and neither does this one. The program’s Jewish protagonist snubs her cousin’s marriage offer because he is for the creation of Israel, and her uncle even remarks that “the solution is not emigration to Arab countries, where there are Arab citizens.”

“Zero Degree Turn” is undoubtedly a bit biased and still manages to be anti-Israel, but is nonetheless a progressive attempt by the show’s creators and the Iranian government to reveal that Iranians are not as ignorant of the Holocaust as many outsiders believe. I’m going to give the show a chance, and maybe Ahmadinejad could as well.

-Kevin