Sasson Gabay Movies

This implausible action film stars Michael Pare as a soldier who must rescue the CIA-director's daughter (Janis Lee) from a Turkish prison camp. In the process, Pare is temporarily blinded but uses his psychic abilities to defeat a group of Arab terrorists attempting to steal plutonium to blow up the world. Director Bob Misiorowski handles the action scenes fairly well, but the silly premise seems to have been patched together from several different scripts, none of them very good. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

In this docudrama based on true events, a mid-'80s Michigan housewife finds her life turned upside down when a vacation to Tehran with her Iranian husband turns into virtual imprisonment for her and her young daughter. Betty Mahmoody (Sally Field) is reluctant to visit the wartorn homeland of her doctor husband, Moody (Alfred Molina). But, depressed about the racism of the American medical establishment and pining for contact with his family, Moody convinces her to join him for a two-week jaunt. The Islamic fundamentalism and strange customs of Iran bewilder and frighten Betty and her daughter, Mahtob (Sheila Rosenthal). But nothing prepares her for Moody's announcement that the family will be remaining in Tehran indefinitely. Despite beatings and more pervasive psychological control from her husband and his relatives, Betty makes it to the Swiss embassy (there is no American ambassador at the time). There, she learns that as the wife of an Iranian, she is now automatically considered a citizen and that she has absolutely no parental rights over Mahtob in this country. Betty then endures several years as a virtual prisoner, escaping only with the help of Westernized Iranian friends. Based on the book by the real-life Mahmoody and William Hoffer, Not Without My Daughter was coincidentally released during the long build-up to 1991's Gulf War. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

The British/US co-production The Impossible Spy is based on the life and career of Israeli undercover agent Elie Cohen. The story begins in 1959, with the Egyptian-born Cohen (John Shea) being recruited by the Israeli Mossad. Cohen, a mild-mannered Jewish accountant, wants no part of espionage, but goes along with his superior's plans to send him into Syria under an assumed identity. The reluctant spy is so successful in his cover that he is nearly elected Syrian minister of defense! What finally does happen results in the death of Cohen in 1965--and the birth of an enduring legend. Written by Marty Ross and Jim Goddard, The Impossible Spy was first telecast November 28, 1987, as an HBO Showcase presentation. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi