Director: Ziad Doueiri
In October 2016, a French special forces unit is dropped into the chaos surrounding Mosul with one objective: bring back the daughter and grandson of a senior Daesh commander who will only cooperate under that condition.
What is Dark Hearts about?
Dark Hearts follows a French commando team sent into northern Iraq on the eve of the Mosul offensive. Their target is a high-ranking Daesh emir who holds intelligence the unit needs, but he refuses to talk unless his daughter and grandson are pulled out of the war zone first. The soldiers have to weigh a battlefield extraction against the murky ethics of bargaining with a man they consider an enemy, all while the front line closes in around them. Director Ziad Doueiri, known for grounding conflict stories in the texture of ordinary lives caught in the middle, keeps the camera close to the soldiers' faces and the family they are tasked with rescuing rather than to wide battle spectacle. The series threads a tense hostage-rescue plot through a larger question about what victory actually costs the people sent to secure it.
Cast & crew
Nicolas Duvauchelle anchors the unit as its most conflicted member, with Marie Dompnier, Tewfik Jallab and Nina Meurisse rounding out a commando ensemble that plays the mission's tension as much through silence as dialogue. Jérémy Nadeau and Quentin Faure fill out the squad, while Victor Pontecorvo and Thierry Godard appear in supporting roles tied to the operation's chain of command.
Context & significance
Dark Hearts is a French production set during the real 2016 lead-up to the Battle of Mosul, one of the largest urban military operations against Daesh. The show does not dramatize a specific historical rescue but uses the period's documented chaos as its backdrop, focusing on the moral bind facing soldiers who must protect civilians connected to an enemy commander. At 50 minutes an episode, it moves with the pacing of a limited drama rather than an action miniseries.
Where & how to watch
Dark Hearts streams on K-Time with Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles, alongside the original French audio, so viewers can choose either. Watching requires a free K-Time account login; the film page itself is open to browse without signing in. K-Time's Farsi-language interface is built for the Iranian diaspora audience discovering French war dramas like this one.