Unbreakable Soul - Episode 1 - Review

Oh yay, a story about a rich person and how they became rich, how exciting. That was me just moments before pressing play on the first episode of Unbreakable Soul by Alexander Kwanje. Folks, I’m here to tell you that entrepreneur Shirin Behzadi is not your average “self-made” billionaire. For one, because she is actually self-made, and two because from this first episode, you can see that her motivations lie in doing good with her wealth and knowledge. The show is presented in a mishmash of styles, from observational reality TV to static talking heads. Throughout these styles, a variety of animation styles are peppered in, serving as B-roll. While I worry a little bit about the potential use of generative AI in these segments, it was reassuring to see a crew of both 2D and 3D animators working on this series.

In the first episode of Unbreakable Soul, we’re introduced to Shirin Behzadi as she is on her way to give a speech. Dressed up very smartly in a buttercup yellow suit, she talks with her daughter about the speech and how she’s feeling about it. This intro sequence is spliced between context of Shirin’s life growing up in Iran during the revolution. She talks about seeing the Iran she knew change into an oppressive state where her intelligence and brilliance is not only ignored, but completely discredited with lies spread by the people who seized power. Shirin makes her way to the presentation by car, speaking with Tucker Stine (a story coach and brand narrative strategist who works with Shirin). Tucker joins Shirin’s husband and two of her children as talking heads giving more context to her story.

The episode continues with this style, jumping from the present day presentation and a mostly animated retelling of Shirin’s upbringing, going from a war-torn Iran to a bright future in the US.

Shirin’s story is undoubtedly inspiring. Her resilience and strength are evident almost immediately. However, I don’t think this is the best medium for her story, told through fleeting moods and jarring tonal shifts. With a story as heavy as this, there needs to be more of a gradual transition from harrowing recounts to very jovial and mundane current day happenings. As an example, a little bit into the first episode, Shirin details a tragic story of her cousins being tortured by the regime for taking the wrong side of a 50/50 question. We see a pretty solemn image of the torture recreated as a 3D scene and then after lingering on that image, cut back to her at the presentation, with an upbeat pop song and a montage of Shirin chatting to people. I felt completely thrown by this shift, which happens throughout, but not as extreme as this particular one.

For me, there is a perfect point in the story to begin Shirin’s history, when she begins to detail it in her speech. While not as “dynamic” I think it would have suited the story so much more to have focused on her story leading up to that moment.

The shifts in tone also extend to the presentation of these scenes, with a variety of styles of animation making up a lot of the visual context. I honestly really enjoyed this, where the style was able to fit the content at the time, heightening the emotion or intensity of the retelling. Some 3D animated sequences show less emotional tales, while more poetic animation styles build up Shirin’s reflective stories. In particular, there is a story that Shirin tells about hiding in the basement of the building they lived in at the time from the ongoing conflict. She remembers how regular these instances became, and how the people in the building adapted, bringing down card games or telling each other jokes to pass the time. This story stood out to me as such a showcase of Shirin’s resilience. She looks back on these times with a level of fondness. While obviously shrouded in a blanket of oppression and adversity, her memories are not of how they survived the times, but overcame them.

While the animation styles worked really well for me, I was not as enchanted by the treatment of the footage shot for the documentary. There is a bizarrely cold look applied to the “reality TV” segments, and an overly bright look to the interviews. Documentaries are notorious for the multiple camera sources, ranging from new to old. These looks will of course be in juxtaposition, where archive footage is rightly given its own look. However, where Unbreakable Soul differs is having mismatched looks between cameras in the modern day. This is mostly evident in Shirin’s driving scene, where she recounts working in a gas station. The filmmakers opt for a timelapse of the drive, speeding through the city in a more flat colour palette. Once we cut into the car with Shirin, the cold look is back and more pronounced than before having just come from the window mounted camera outside the car.

I think when it boils down to it, my issues with this first episode are with the content of the present day. Shirin going to speak at the event is a great entry point to her story, seeing where she has come from to a now captive audience listening to her advice. I just think the build up is treated poorly, there is not enough going on to justify coming back from the past to the present where we get a very normal conversation between Shirin and her daughter. I understand that the intention may have been to showcase the intensity of her life before and the normality of her existence now, but it reads more as boring than inspiring in these moments. I have yet to catch the remaining two episodes of this series but I hope to see more of Shirin’s exciting life today and a continuation of her empathy and perseverance.

Unbreakable Soul: Based on Shirin Behzadi’s Life Story is expected to release in the fall of 2026.