ManotoTVEpisode One begins in January 1979, as Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi leaves Iran for what he believes may be a temporary departure. But what begins as an attempt to calm unrest at home soon becomes one of the most dramatic political exiles of the twentieth century.
For the first time, Aryamehr retraces this journey by travelling to the actual countries, cities, hotels, airports, palaces, islands, and residences where the Shah stayed after leaving Iran. In this episode, the story moves from Iran to Egypt, Morocco, the Bahamas, and Mexico — following the Shah step by step through the first phase of his exile.
In Egypt, President Anwar Sadat welcomes him with warmth, honour, and friendship. But that welcome soon gives way to a harsher reality. As the revolution takes power in Tehran, the Shah finds himself increasingly isolated. Former allies grow cautious. Governments hesitate. Invitations become temporary. Doors begin to close.
From Aswan to Morocco, from the Bahamas to Mexico, the episode follows a monarch who only months earlier had ruled one of the most powerful countries in the Middle East — now moving from one uncertain refuge to another, watching from afar as his country, his army, and the world he had built collapse behind him.
Using rare archive footage, present-day filming on location, historical context, and the Shah’s own words, the episode explores the key forces that shaped his reign and downfall: his friendship with Anwar Sadat, Iran’s relationship with the United States, his personal religious beliefs, his vision of Iranian identity through Cyrus the Great and ancient Persia, the role of Empress Farah, the White Revolution, his confrontation with Ayatollah Khomeini, the crisis with Mohammad Mossadegh, the controversy over SAVAK, and the final collapse of royal power.
This is not simply the story of a king who lost his throne. It is the story of a leader abandoned by history in real time — praised by world leaders one year, avoided by many of them the next. Episode One asks whether Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi was only the authoritarian ruler his enemies described, or a modernizing monarch whose legacy was buried beneath revolution, betrayal, fear, and propaganda.
