(Snap, Click, expl*si*n)
We go behind the scenes of Fauda
to find out why this
Israeli TV thriller
has been such a hit
in Arab countries.
How real is it in showing the
world of Israeli Special Forces
and Palestinian militants?
(Energetic Rock Music)
Can a drama help bring real
life enemies together?
In the Negev desert,
they're sh**ting the new season
of the television series Fauda.
(Car pulling up)
Doron, the Israeli
undercover soldier, is back,
tackling Palestinian militants
during the second intifada.
Two Israeli friends created the
drama.
Lior Raz, the actor who plays
Doron,
and journalist Avi Issacharoff.
They served together in the
Israeli army.
It's like two people speaking in
the same language
that other people
don't understand
because of the background,
because of the places
we spent together...
I didn't talk about my
experiences in the army
for 20 years until
I met Avi again.
We started to talk about it
again and again and again,
and then immediately
it was a good story.
He knew that I was a journalist,
an analyst for
Middle East issues,
that I'm spending so much time
on the Palestinian side,
so we wanted to bring the
complexity of this conflict.
Not only the undercover units
and what they do,
but also 'how does it look
like on the other side,
on the Palestinian side?'
We want to show how they live,
what they are
experiencing in life,
and what price they are
paying for their actions.
And we actually, I think
for the Israeli audience,
we opened a window to them to
see how people live over there.
Fauda is made by an Israeli
production company.
It's been a smash hit in Israel.
But millions more people have
watched it in the Arab world
and the West since
it aired on Netflix.
Rotem Shamir's directing
the second series
and the pressure is on
to repeat that success.
The show is supposed to
feel as real as possible,
but on the other hand
it's a very dramatic show
so we keep trying to bring
in cinematic elements;
there's a little bit of
a western going on here.
(Western-style guitar)
The key Palestinian female
character is back again.
She's played by Laetitia Edo,
a French Lebanese actress.
I relate to Shirin.
I like who she is in this
society, because she's a doctor
She's the hope of
this whole story.
Season 2 is much more
intense than Season 1,
for my character and for
all the other ones.
Hard things are coming
in this season.
Series Two of Fauda continues
the deadly cat and mouse game
between Israelis posing as Arabs
and the Palestinians
they're trying to capture.
But what we also see is
the families who suffer.
And the moral dilemmas of the
occupation – on both sides.
(Intense thriller music)
Fauda is based on these
real Israeli special forces
– the so-called mista'arvim.
It means those who disguise
themselves as Arabs
(expl*si*n)
They operate covertly
on the West Bank,
infiltrating Palestinian
communities,
snatching wanted men.
These units have never
been filmed before –
but we've had exclusive
access to them
as Fauda's thrown a spotlight
on their secret world.
Fauda also shows real life
in the Palestinian
cities of the West Bank.
Refugee camps here
are still home
to armed Palestinian
militants like these men.
They carry out
att*cks on Israelis
and try to outwit the undercover
units hunting them down.
We are covered up not
because we are afraid,
but because we are fighting
and resisting for our cause -
our homeland to be liberated
from the occupation.
Everyone knows the mista'arvim
They are a Special Forces Unit.
They can do whatever they
want – jump up and down –
they're still nothing to us.
I watched Fauda…in
this trivial series,
Israel showed a lot of
the Palestinian side,
not because they love
the Palestinians,
but to weaken them
and terrorise them.
(g*n being loaded)
(Dialogue in Arabic)
In Fauda for the first
time Israeli audiences saw
a Hamas militant as one of
the principal characters.
Abu Ahmad was portrayed
not only as a t*rror1st,
but as someone whose
family was destroyed
by the v*olence of
the occupation.
Israeli-Arab actor
Hisham Suliman
has become famous
for playing Abu Ahmad –
in some unexpected places.
(music)
The Israeli actor, Lior
Raz, who plays Doron,
was himself a soldier in an
undercover Israeli army unit.
In Fauda he didn't want
stereotyped characters –
Israelis as 'good guys' and
Palestinians as 'bad guys'.
I remember that I came to the
writers room and I said,
“Listen I want to be
able and to want to play
each role in this series
and in order to do that,
it's supposed to be a
rounded character.
Even if it is that
evil t*rror1st,
he's got to love his wife
and you have to show it
and he has kids and
you have to show it.
And also the good guys.
They're doing bad stuff,
bad things sometimes.”
In playing Doron,
Lior confronted his own
m*llitary experiences -
and exorcised some
personal ghosts.
When you are in a w*r zone,
it doesn't matter where,
I think you have some kind of
PTSD, post traumatic disorder,
and for me the writing process
and er, the acting as well,
actually it was a
healing process.
I couldn't sit with my
back to the door ever.
Now I can and I don't care.
And I think it's, it
was one of the best,
intense therapy that
you can ever ask.
One of the most shocking
events in Fauda
is based on something
that actually happened
when Lior was on army service.
I had a girlfriend; her
name was Iris Azulai
and she went out from her
home in Baka, in Jerusalem,
and t*rrorists came and att*cked
her and stabbed her to death,
and for me it was I
think the hardest thing
that ever happened to me,
mentally and, and, and
physically it was so hard.
And when I met with Avi he
knew her as well so he said,
“Let's, let's write
that stuff about Iris,”
and I said, “I don't want to
touch it, I don't want to –
it's something that I
never talk about so,”
More than 200 Israelis d*ed in
over 40 Hamas su1c1de att*cks
during the Second Intifada.
(Dialogue in Arabic)
In Fauda, a young Palestinian
wife becomes a bomber
when her husband is k*lled
by the undercover unit.
She goes into a bar in Tel Aviv.
An Israeli girl
is working there.
Her boyfriend's in the army.
Avi convinced me, and we
actually wrote a part
for a woman who's dying
in a, in a su1c1de b*mb
and how it affects her boyfriend
who was serving in the
army at the same time.
And the text that
they had in the show
was the text that
we had in our life.
(expl*si*n,
screaming, car alarm)
On the West Bank real
Palestinian militants
provided the template
for Fauda characters.
Hebron is considered to
be a stronghold of Hamas.
It's considered to be the most
religious city in the West Bank.
Avi's driving into the heartland
of Hamas on the West Bank.
The Islamist group is
Israel's sworn enemy.
Hebron is a tough city,
it's really tough.
There's a checkpoint at the
northern entrance of the city –
its not actually a
checkpoint but a PA thing
Avi speaks fluent Arabic, but
as an Israeli journalist
he takes a risk every time
he comes onto the West Bank.
I've been att*cked
once upon a time,
three, three years
and a bit ago.
A group of masked men
tried to lynch me
and just because I
was an Israeli.
But, being honest, I don't feel
any kind of a thr*at usually.
They got to know me,
they got to trust me...
Yes, Hamas officials trust
an Israeli journalist,
talk to him off the
record, on the record...
Since Fauda Avi's become
even more well known here.
I know that even Hamas officials
in Gaza are watching the show.
They wrote about the show.
Yes, they criticise the show.
Hamas' website
criticised the show,
said it's a Zionist propaganda.
Blah, blah, blah,
yadda, yadda, yadda,
and at the end of the
article put a link
to the first episode of Fauda.
I understand that I'm
an Israeli, I'm a Jew,
of course the narrative
would be more Israeli,
but it's so far from being
propaganda. Not even close.
Today Avi's on assignment,
reporting for an
Israeli radio station.
Avi based Fauda's Arab
characters on his experiences
in the occupied
Palestinian areas
during the Second Intifada.
And when we came with
the idea of Fauda,
which is in Arabic, you know,
it's an Arabic word for chaos,
it presents the
chaos that was here
in the Palestinian territories
during the years
of 2000 and 2007.
And Palestinians who
were living here
know better than I
what Fauda means.
The undercover units
that they used to tell
'Fauda, Fauda, Fauda' when
something went wrong.
(Car driving, people shouting)
In Fauda, the
undercover Israeli unit
disguised as waiters at a
wedding party on the West Bank,
try to trap Abu Ahmed.
Doron chases him
through the streets...
but he gets away – again.
That's why they call
him 'The Panther'.
There's a real life Panther,
well known in the
refugee camps of Jenin.
(Casual dialogue in Arabic)
Zakaria Zubeidi
was the commander
of a unit of the
Al Aqsa Brigades
during the second intifada,
He was paying his condolences
at a funeral tent one evening
when a van drew up and the
mista'arvim jumped out.
Zakaria began to fight
the Israeli occupation
when he was just a boy.
Zakaria became a b*mb maker.
His face was scarred
by an expl*si*n.
He was wanted for
su1c1de att*cks
that k*lled dozens of
Israeli civilians.
The undercover units
set out to get him.
Today Zakaria says he's
a full time father.
No longer a fighter, he
looks after the welfare
of Palestinian prisoners –
there are still 6,000
in Israeli jails.
(music)
Zakaria hadn't seen Fauda but
he agreed to take a look.
The Israeli border police
have a mista'arvim unit -
it's called Yamas.
They're training
to make an arrest
deep in Palestinian territory.
First, undercover soldiers,
looking and sounding like local
Arabs, identify the target.
The undercover soldiers
make their arrest,
but they've been rumbled
(sh**ting)
They're now the target,
and once they're exposed,
the back up squad shows
up with covering fire.
(g*nf*re)
But what about the
Palestinian militants' claim
that the mista'arvim are
just cold blooded K*llers?
(g*nf*re)
(Music)
Fauda isn't all about
g*ns and action –
it's about the moral
dilemmas too,
on both sides of this
bloody conflict.
(Director giving instructions)
Laetitia, who plays Dr Shirin,
is on set in an
Israeli hospital,
made to look as if
it's on the West Bank.
Shirin's an unusual
lead character:
a strong, independent
Arab woman.
I was very happy first that
this Palestinian woman
has this high level
in the hospital.
It's important, I think, because
it exists and it has to be shown
and Shirin is a character
who really loves her job
and she really tries
to help people.
In this season she is
suffering much more,
and people when they read
the script, they say
'Oh my God, I was crying
reading the script!'
In the first season of Fauda,
the Palestinian doctor was used
by militants in her family.
As a doctor she is asked
to help the head of Hamas.
She doesn't want to get involved
in these political things,
this mess, but she is helping
a man who is wounded.
As a doctor, Shirin
faces a moral crisis
after she is forced
to plant a b*mb
inside a wounded Israel
undercover soldier.
I know the political
situation here,
and I really asked them
many times before,
when I went through
the audition process,
'Is it going to be balanced?'
Both of the sides
are bad and good,
so this is why a lot of people
on both sides are saying that
for first time I have
compassion for these people.
So this for me is small,
but still a victory.
She doesn't like Hamas. She
doesn't care about the Israelis.
She doesn't like the conflict,
but she finds herself
dragged into this conflict,
and what's so beautiful
about her is that, for us,
she's the representative
of the innocent,
of the people that are not
into k*lling other people,
are not into the conflict,
who just want to
live their life.
And this is what's so sad
about this character.
(Music)
It isn't just in Fauda
that Palestinian hospitals
have been the scene of an
Israeli undercover operations.
Just outside Nablus
two years ago,
Hamas k*lled two
Israeli settlers.
Eitam and Nama Henkin
were sh*t in their car –
while their children watched
from the back seat.
Rana Rezeq's son Karam Al Masri
was one of the Hamas cell.
In the hospital in
Nablus that night,
Karam's uncle, Ashraf Al Masri,
was visiting his nephew
as the hospital CCTV captured
a live mista'arvim operation.
(Doors opening)
In the first series of Fauda
the plot was eerily similar.
Abu Ahmed had been
taken to hospital
after being sh*t by Doron.
But before the undercover
team could get to him,
he was spirited away with
the help of Dr Shirin.
Karam's family thought he'd
be safe from the Israelis
in the hospital.
It was the experiences of these
Palestinian mothers like Rana
that the creators of Fauda
wanted to put on the screen
What we did is think: 'What
would a Palestinian woman say?'
Think about what goes on
in the mind of a mother
who knows that her
son is a t*rror1st,
or considered to be a t*rror1st.
Down in her heart, deep,
deep in her heart,
I think that that
mother is really crying
when she is losing her son.
(Music)
The Palestinian scenes in Fauda
aren't filmed on the West Bank,
but in Israeli Arab cities.
Kfar Qasem, north of Tel Aviv,
has been turned into a film set.
Some of the locals have even
been roped in as extras.
Rotem's directing a
big cast and crew –
a mixture of Arabs and Jews
We work very well together,
we have a lot of fun,
we laugh all the time.
When you get home you understand
that you are in
somewhat of a bubble,
that this is not necessarily
how things really are,
but for us to experience
things in such a positive way
is very unique and
enjoyable, I guess.
We film a lot of the
show in Arab cities
and we have rarely run
into any situation
where we felt unwelcome,
or anything like that.
We haven't got to the
part of the show yet
where we blow things up;
we're gonna get to that…
so you'll have to ask me
again in a couple of months!
Modesty forbids local Arab
women acting as extras.
So the Israeli
production company
have dressed up some
of their own staff.
(Music)
Not all Israeli-Arabs who
work in the film business
are happy with Fauda and
the world it presents.
Salwa Nakkara, a well-known
Israeli-Arab actress,
was offered a role in the
first series of Fauda.
Salwa turned down
the part in Fauda
and posted her
reasons on Facebook.
(Hisham rehearsing dialogue)
In Nazareth, Hisham is
rehearsing a new play
in his Arabic speaking theatre.
It's about three
Palestinian brothers –
one is a collaborator
with the Israelis.
Hisham knew his decision as
an Arab to play Abu Ahmed,
the Palestinian militant in
Fauda, would be controversial.
Hisham's character, Abu Ahmed,
was k*lled off in the
first series of Fauda.
But he'll always remember
his catchphrase.
(g*nsh*t)
Walid, the young
Hamas commander,
is a bigger fish in the
new series of Fauda.
The set's now an Israeli
interrogation centre.
It's intense for Israeli-Arab
actor Shadi Mari,
who plays Walid.
Maybe we should add a
small "Walid?" to it,
meaning 'Who's this?'
(Director calling for quiet)
Unusually for an
international drama series,
Fauda is recorded in
Arabic and in Hebrew,
and shown with subtitles.
I speak fluent Arabic
but this is after 17 years in
the field as a journalist.
Lior spoke less Arabic, but
he's improving more and more.
I would speak in Arabic
to the Arab guys,
but from time to time they
would answer in Arabic,
from time to time in Hebrew,
so it's kind of a multi-language
crew and TV show.
My father came from Iraq,
my mother from Algeria,
and he speaks fluent Arabic.
Actually my father and me, we
consider ourselves Arab Jews.
In this show in the next season,
we actually wrote a new part
of my character's father
based on my real father.
In the script we have to speak
in Arabic between ourselves.
For us it's very important that
when they speak in Arabic,
it will be good Arabic
with a good accent.
At the beginning of the scene,
it's the fact that when
you see him, you say
'Don't leave me here
with him alone', OK?
Who really speaks which language
is sometimes surprising.
Dana, the Israeli who
acts the interrogator,
has to question
Shirin in Arabic.
Dana doesn't speak it – but
neither does Laetitia.
I don't read Hebrew, I don't
read Arabic...
Yeah, but I couldn't read a
script in Hebrew,
so I don't know anything,
I don't know what's happening
in the script, just my lines.
It's crazy, I agree!
Hi!
Laetitia depends on her
Arabic teacher for every word.
You met Abed my amazing
dialogue coach?
I was born and raised in
France, so I am French.
But my mum, she was
born in Lebanon,
so she speaks Lebanese Arabic,
which is very close
to Palestinian.
So I just know some words.
And Abed has the text
in Arabic and Hebrew,
and then he says it and
records it for me,
and then when all the script
is recorded, my parts,
I listen to it for hours until I
write exactly what I hear.
(Meirav practising Arabic
pronunciation with Abed)
When Netflix got in, it became a
huge success in Arab countries,
so yes, I got many emails from
Iran, from Lebanon, from Kuwait,
from all over the Arab world
and many people write to me.
I think two reasons that people
in the Arab world love it:
first of all the language –
because we honour the language,
and the second is that we
show them as they are.
(Music)
Lior's come to the gym to
train with Nimrod Astel –
a martial arts expert from
the same mista'arvim unit.
Nimrod is my best
buddy from the army.
We used to serve together in
Special forces in Israel.
When we started to sh**t Fauda,
I thought things will be real.
When you go to stunt
co-ordinators,
most of the time if you
have to hit someone
it's going to be like this, and
then again and again and again,
but in our unit if you don't do
it in 2 seconds you are dead.
We have an action
scene on Sunday.
I have to disarm and
k*ll a few people.
Nimrod is going to
help me to manoeuvre
and to see how we do it
smoothly and professionally.
In Fauda we don't have
professional stunts –
all the stunts are
people from out unit
and it's all real – they
are all from the field.
It's Sunday on the set and
they're sh**ting the g*n battle.
Ronalee Shimon plays Nurit,
the only woman mista'arvim
in the Israeli unit.
She's pumping herself up before
an intense action sequence
where she infiltrates
a Palestinian area
Coming from a ballet
dancing background,
I don't think I've ever imagined
myself running around with g*ns
and sh**ting people.
I think the rawness of how it's
done makes it feel so real.
The way the show goes about the
conflict is what makes it...
people just love it.
(g*nshots and intense music)
Fauda may be raw,
but do the sh**t-outs and
the fast paced action
glamourise the
Israeli occupation?
Do you think that
Narcos is glorifying
the dr*gs addiction in the US?
No.
Do you think that Sopranos
glorified the mafia? No.
I think it tells a story.
I'm not a Palestinian.
If I was a Palestinian,
probably the story would
be a different story,
but I'm an Israeli
with an open mind.
I'm open minded, and I want to
show people from all places,
and all kind of situations
but the narrative, it's
an Israeli narrative.
It's a Zionist narrative.
I'm Zionist and Israeli,
so I cannot run away from this.
(g*n f*ring)
On the sh**ting range,
the real mista'arvim of
the Israeli border police
are preparing for
their next mission.
Here today we're working on
our sh**ting capabilities
just to make sure that we are
always ready and prepared
for any sort of situation
that might catch us
at any point in time
(g*nsh*t)
Yamas sn*pers are considered
amongst the best in the world.
Their job is to cover
members of their unit
who go into Palestinian
areas disguised as Arabs.
This is a video of
an actual operation.
(g*nf*re)
(Music)
For some Israeli soldiers,
the reality of the conflict
is not what Fauda shows.
Achiya Schatz is a member
of Breaking the Silence –
former Israeli soldiers speaking
out against the occupation.
He's leading a tour of Hebron,
where his unit carried
out many operations.
Achiya was a soldier
in the Duvdevan –
the most elite Israeli
undercover army unit.
Duvdevan means cherry in Hebrew.
In a way, we've
been told that it's
the cherry on the
top of the cake.
In a way, this is how you feel.
You feel that you are
in this elite unit
that goes on special mission.
But Achiya came to believe
the operations of
the undercover unit
were the most immoral aspect
of the Israeli occupation.
The thought that you can't trust
someone that's next to you,
the people that are
walking in the street,
the fact that we
create this fear
in the heart of
millions of people,
millions of Palestinians,
is horrible.
And the fact that
I was part of it
is one of the reasons
I broke my silence.
The new series of Fauda is
about to air in Israel,
but Avi's already thinking about
the plot for a third season.
There's still
plenty of material.
The bloodshed's continued
since the Second Intifada cost
the lives of 1000 Israelis
and 4000 Palestinians.
People just wanna
live their life,
people don't wanna hear
about the conflict.
People had enough
of talking about
the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict.
They had the Second Intifada.
It's a huge scar in the
hearts of everyone.
Both sides, by the way.
Then again, Palestinians and
Israelis do not believe any more
in peace with the other side
because of what happened
in the Second Intifada.
I don't see the end of the
conflict coming soon.
When I was bit younger
and maybe more naïve
I thought that we might need
to change the leadership
in order to get to
a peace agreement.
Now I think we need
to change the people.
And I think the two people
deserve each other, in a way.
(Upbeat, cheerful music)
(Children laughing)
Hisham is out with his children
by the beach at the weekend.
He's a celebrity in Israel –
thanks to playing the
Palestinian militant Abu Ahmed
Oh my God!
(Music)
The sh**t is over.
But before Laetitia
leaves Israel,
she wants to see the
real West Bank.
She's come to Bethlehem,
where the Wall, the
separation barrier,
keeps Israelis and
Palestinians apart.
Playing Shirin I received
a lot of insights,
experience, life experiences,
and people shared with me a lot
of things about the conflict
I will miss my character,
I will miss her –
I will miss her because I just
put some of my heart in her.
(Car beeping)
You look really Palestinian.
I know we are not gonna
change the world in a show.
This is something that I,
I'm happy to be part of
and I'm not naïve,
I'm not waiting for the
show to change the world,
but what it does
already it's something.
I think Fauda's
legacy could be...
if it could teach the
young generations
that vengeance is endless
and is not the solution.
Even if you suffered before,
and I know from my own family
that it's hard in Lebanon,
and the wounds with
Israel – it's endless.
But who will win in the end is
the one who will say:
'OK, let's stop it here.'
(Music)
Lior's having a farewell drink
with his friend Nimrod.
He's off to Hollywood for
his next film role –
he's a big international
star now.
Lior wants to capitalise
on Fauda's success
to create new shows about
other conflicts in the world.
But he knows a TV series can't
replace a political solution.
I really hope that we could
have two countries,
separated countries for the
Palestinians and the Israelis.
I think we have to have
peace with each other
because it's not taking us
anywhere, and the w*r is bad.
This is what we wanted to show.
I don't want my kids to be
in a w*r with the Palestinians.
Is that the guy from Fauda?
Are you filming this?
I think that we
should be optimistic.
We should work and do
everything to have peace
with the Palestinians
and I'm waiting for
the people over there
to say the same thing.
(Music, sound of waves)
Real Fauda, The (2018)
Moderator: Maskath3