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00:00 [ Music ]
00:28 >> We go behind the scenes of Fauda to find
00:31 out why this Israeli TV thriller has been such a hit
00:34 in Arab countries.
00:36 How real is it in showing the world
00:40 of Israeli special forces and Palestinian militants?
00:45 [ Music ]
00:58 Can a drama help bring real life enemies together?
01:01 [ Music ]
01:08 [ Explosion ]
01:10 [ Silence ]
01:15 [ Music ]
01:22 In the Negev Desert, they're shooting the new season
01:25 of the television series Fauda.
01:27 [ Music ]
01:32 Doron, the Israeli undercover soldier, is back,
01:35 tackling Palestinian militants during the second Intifada.
01:39 Two Israeli friends created the drama.
01:43 Lior Raz, the actor who plays Doron,
01:46 and journalist Avi Ishasherov.
01:48 [ Music ]
01:53 They serve together in the Israeli army.
01:55 >> It's like two people speaking in the same language
01:59 that other people don't understand because of the background,
02:03 because of the places that we spend together.
02:07 You know, I didn't talk about my experience in the army
02:10 for 20 years until I met Avi again.
02:12 And we started to talk about it again and again and again.
02:16 And then immediately it was a good story.
02:20 >> He knew that I was a journalist, an analyst
02:23 for Middle East issues, that I'm spending so much time
02:27 on the Palestinian side.
02:28 So we wanted to bring the complexity of this,
02:31 not only the undercover units and what they do,
02:34 but also how does it look like on the other side,
02:37 on the Palestinian side.
02:38 >> I want to show how they live, what their experience in life,
02:42 and what the price that they are paying for their actions.
02:45 And we actually, I think for the Israeli audience,
02:50 we opened a window to them to see how people live over there.
02:56 >> Fauda's made by an Israeli production company.
03:00 It's been a smash hit in Israel,
03:04 and millions more people have watched it in the Arab world
03:06 and the West since it aired on Netflix.
03:09 Rotem Shamir is directing the second series,
03:12 and the pressure is on to repeat that success.
03:16 >> The show is supposed to feel as real as possible,
03:20 but on the other hand it's a very dramatic show.
03:22 So we keep trying to bring in, you know, cinematic elements.
03:26 There's a little bit of a Western going on here.
03:30 [ Music ]
03:38 >> The key Palestinian female character is back again.
03:42 She's played by Letitia Edo, a French-Lebanese actress.
03:47 >> I relate to Shirin.
03:49 I like who she is in the society because she's a doctor.
03:52 She's the hope of this whole story.
03:55 Season two is much more intense than season one.
03:58 For my character and for all the other ones,
04:02 hard things are coming in this season.
04:06 >> Series two of Fauda continues the deadly cat and mouse game
04:11 between Israelis posing as Arabs
04:14 and the Palestinians they're trying to capture.
04:17 [ Foreign Language ]
04:22 >> But what we also see is the families who suffer
04:26 and the moral dilemmas of the occupation on both sides.
04:30 [ Gunfire ]
04:36 [ Music ]
04:41 >> Fauda is based on these real Israeli special forces,
04:45 the so-called Misdavim.
04:47 It means those who disguise themselves as Arabs.
04:51 [ Gunfire ]
04:53 >> They operate covertly on the West Bank,
04:56 infiltrating Palestinian communities, snatching wanted men.
05:00 [ Music ]
05:05 >> These units have never been filmed before,
05:08 but we've had exclusive access to them
05:11 as Fauda's thrown a spotlight on their secret world.
05:16 [ Foreign Language ]
05:43 >> Fauda also shows real life in the Palestinian cities of the West Bank.
05:48 Refugee camps here are still home
05:51 to armed Palestinian militants like these men.
05:55 They carry out attacks on Israelis
05:57 and try to outwit the undercover units hunting them down.
06:01 >> We are covered up not because we are afraid,
06:05 but because we are fighting and resisting for our cause,
06:10 our homeland to be liberated from the occupation.
06:12 Everyone knows the Misdavim.
06:14 They are a special forces unit.
06:17 They can do whatever they want, jump up and down.
06:20 There's still nothing to us.
06:23 I watched Fauda.
06:25 In this trivial series, Israel showed a lot of the Palestinian side,
06:30 not because they love the Palestinians,
06:32 but to weaken them and terrorize them.
06:37 [ Foreign Language ]
06:45 >> In Fauda, for the first time,
06:47 Israeli audiences saw a Hamas militant
06:50 as one of the principal characters.
06:52 Abu Ahmed was portrayed not only as a terrorist,
06:56 but as someone whose family was destroyed
06:59 by the violence of the occupation.
07:02 [ Foreign Language ]
07:07 >> Israeli Arab actor Hisham Suleiman has become famous
07:11 for playing Abu Ahmed in some unexpected places.
07:15 [ Foreign Language ]
07:24 [ Foreign Language ]
07:49 [ Music ]
07:59 >> The Israeli actor, Lior Raz, who plays Doron,
08:02 was himself a soldier in an undercover Israeli army unit.
08:06 In Fauda, he didn't want stereotyped characters,
08:10 Israelis as good guys and Palestinians as bad guys.
08:15 >> I remember that I came to the writers' room
08:18 and I said, "Listen, I want to be able
08:21 and to want to play each role in this series."
08:25 And in order to do that,
08:27 it's supposed to be a rounded character.
08:29 Even if he's the evil terrorist,
08:32 he got to love his wife, and we have to show it.
08:35 And he have kids, and we have to show it.
08:39 And also, the good guys, they're doing bad things sometimes.
08:45 [ Foreign Language ]
08:50 >> In playing Doron, Lior confronted his own military experiences
08:55 and exorcised some personal ghosts.
08:58 >> When you are in a war zone, it doesn't matter where,
09:02 I think you have some kind of PTSD, post-traumatic disorder.
09:07 And for me, the writing process and the acting as well,
09:14 actually, it was a healing process.
09:16 I couldn't sit with my back to the door, ever.
09:20 Now I can, and I don't care.
09:23 And I think it was one of the best intense therapy
09:28 that you can ever ask.
09:31 >> One of the most shocking events in Fauda
09:35 is based on something that actually happened
09:37 when Lior was on army service.
09:41 >> I had a girlfriend, her name was Iris Azulay,
09:44 and she went out from her home in Baka, in Jerusalem,
09:49 and terrorists came and attacked her and stabbed her to death.
09:54 And for me, it was, I think, the hardest thing
09:57 that ever happened to me, mentally and physically, everything.
10:02 It was so hard.
10:05 And when I met with Avi, he knew her as well.
10:10 So he said, "Let's write, let's talk about Iris."
10:12 And I said, "I don't want to touch it,
10:14 it's something that I never talk about."
10:17 >> More than 200 Israelis died in over 40 Hamas suicide attacks
10:21 during the second Intifada.
10:24 [Speaking in Arabic]
10:27 >> In Fauda, a young Palestinian wife becomes a bomber
10:33 when her husband is killed by the undercover unit.
10:38 [Singing]
10:40 She goes into a bar in Tel Aviv.
10:44 An Israeli girl is working there, her boyfriend's in the army.
10:48 >> Avi convinced me and we actually wrote a part
10:52 for a woman who's dying in a suicide bomb
10:56 and how it affects her boyfriend,
11:00 who was serving in the army at the same time.
11:05 And the text that they had in the show,
11:07 it's the text that we had in our life.
11:10 [Explosion]
11:12 [Sirens]
11:14 [Music]
11:17 >> On the West Bank, real Palestinian militants
11:22 provided the template for Fauda characters.
11:26 >> Hebron is considered to be a stronghold of Hamas.
11:30 It's considered to be like the most religious city in the West Bank.
11:34 >> Avi's driving into the heartland of Hamas on the West Bank.
11:38 The Islamist group is Israel's sworn enemy.
11:42 >> Hebron, it's a tough city. It's really tough.
11:46 [Speaking in Arabic]
11:49 >> Avi speaks fluent Arabic.
11:55 But as an Israeli journalist, he takes a risk
11:58 every time he comes onto the West Bank.
12:01 >> You know, I've been attacked once upon a time,
12:05 three years and a bit ago.
12:07 A group of masked men tried to lynch me
12:10 just because I was an Israeli.
12:13 But being honest, really, I don't feel any kind of threat usually.
12:18 And they got to know me, you know, and they got to know me on a very, you know,
12:22 to trust me.
12:24 Yes, Hamas officials trust an Israeli journalist.
12:27 Talked to him off the record, on the record.
12:30 >> Since Fauda, Avi's become even more well-known here.
12:34 >> I know that Hamas officials in Gaza are watching this show.
12:37 They wrote about the show. Yes, they criticized the show.
12:41 Hamas's website criticized the show, said that it's a Zionist propaganda, blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada.
12:48 And at the end of the article, put a link to the first episode of Fauda.
12:52 I understand that I'm an Israeli, I'm a Jew.
12:55 Of course, the narrative would be more Israeli.
12:58 But it's so far from being propaganda, not even close.
13:02 >> Today, Avi's on assignment, reporting for an Israeli radio station.
13:09 [Speaking in Hebrew]
13:15 >> Avi based Fauda's Arab characters on his experiences in the occupied Palestinian areas
13:22 during the Second Intifada.
13:25 >> When we came with the idea of Fauda, which is in Arabic, you know, it's an Arabic word for chaos.
13:31 It presents the chaos that was here in the Palestinian territories during the years of 2000 to 2007.
13:38 And Palestinians who were living here know better than I what does Fauda mean.
13:43 The undercover units that they used to tell, say, Fauda, Fauda, Fauda, when something went wrong.
13:51 [Speaking in Hebrew]
13:56 >> In Fauda, the undercover Israeli unit, disguised as waiters at a wedding party on the West Bank,
14:02 try to trap Abu Ahmed.
14:05 Doron chases him through the streets.
14:08 But he gets away again.
14:11 That's why they call him the Panther.
14:15 [Music]
14:22 >> There's a real-life Panther, well-known in the refugee camps of Jenin.
14:28 [Speaking in Hebrew]
14:37 >> Zakaria Subedi was the commander of a unit of the Al-Aqsa Brigades during the Second Intifada.
14:44 He was paying his condolences at a funeral tent one evening, when a van drew up and the Mestavin jumped out.
14:52 [Speaking in Hebrew]
15:01 [Speaking in Hebrew]
15:10 [Speaking in Hebrew]
15:31 [Music]
15:39 >> Zakaria began to fight the Israeli occupation when he was just a boy.
15:44 [Speaking in Hebrew]
16:05 >> Zakaria became a bomb maker. His face was scarred by an explosion.
16:11 He was wanted for suicide attacks that killed dozens of Israeli civilians.
16:17 The undercover units set out to get him.
16:20 [Speaking in Hebrew]
16:50 [Speaking in Hebrew]
17:00 >> Today, Zakaria says he's a full-time father.
17:04 No longer a fighter, he looks after the welfare of Palestinian prisoners.
17:09 There are still 6,000 in Israeli jails.
17:14 [Speaking in Hebrew]
17:26 [Music]
17:32 >> Zakaria hadn't seen Fowda, but he agreed to take a look.
17:37 [Music]
17:42 [Speaking in Hebrew]
18:11 [Music]
18:13 [Speaking in Hebrew]
18:21 [Speaking in Hebrew]
18:44 [Music]
18:50 >> The Israeli border police have a Mastavim unit. It's called Yamas.
18:55 They're training to make an arrest deep in Palestinian territory.
19:00 First, undercover soldiers, looking and sounding like local Arabs, identify the target.
19:07 [Speaking in Hebrew]
19:19 >> The undercover soldiers make their arrest, but they've been rumbled.
19:24 [Gunshots]
19:26 >> They're now the target, and once they're exposed, the backup squad shows up with covering fire.
19:32 [Gunshots]
19:40 [Speaking in Hebrew]
20:10 [Speaking in Hebrew]
20:31 >> But what about the Palestinian militants' claim the Mastavim are just cold-blooded killers?
20:39 [Speaking in Hebrew]
20:59 [Music]
21:08 >> Fauda isn't all about guns and action. It's about the moral dilemmas, too, on both sides of this bloody conflict.
21:15 [Music]
21:18 >> Waleed, with his bodyguard, are going to be waiting over here. We'll pick him up.
21:21 >> Letitia, who plays Dr. Shirin, is on set in an Israeli hospital, made to look as if it's on the West Bank.
21:29 Shirin's an unusual lead character, a strong, independent Arab woman.
21:36 [Music]
21:38 >> I was very happy, first, that this Palestinian woman has this high level in the hospital.
21:46 It's important, I think, because it exists and it has to be shown.
21:51 And Shirin is a character who really loves her job, and she really tries to help people.
21:58 And this season, she's suffering much more. And people, when they read the script, they always say, "Oh, my God, I was crying reading the script."
22:05 >> Waleed? Waleed?
22:08 >> In the first season of Fauda, the Palestinian doctor was used by militants in her family.
22:14 >> Where did you come from in France?
22:16 >> Not long ago.
22:18 >> As a doctor, she's asked to help the head of the Hamas.
22:23 And for her, I think, I mean, she doesn't want to get involved in these political things, you know, this mess.
22:29 But she's helping a man that he's wounded.
22:32 >> As a doctor, Shirin faces a moral crisis after she is forced to plant a bomb inside a wounded Israeli undercover soldier.
22:41 >> I know the political situation here, and I really asked them many times before, when I went through the audition process, I was like, "Is it going to be balanced?"
22:52 And the sides are bad and good. So this is why a lot of people on both sides are saying that for the first time, I had compassion for the other side.
23:02 So this, for me, is a small but still victory.
23:06 >> She doesn't like Hamas. She doesn't care about Israelis. She doesn't like the conflict.
23:12 But she finds herself dragged into this conflict.
23:16 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 killing other people,
23:28 are not into the conflict, that just want to live the life.
23:32 And this is what's so sad about this character.
23:36 >> It isn't just in Fauda that Palestinian hospitals have been the scene of Israeli undercover operations.
23:46 Just outside Nablus two years ago, Hamas killed two Israeli settlers.
23:51 Eitam and Nama Henkin were shot in their car, while their children watched from the back seat.
23:58 Rana Rizek's son, Karim Al-Mazri, was one of the Hamas cell.
24:09 >>
24:11 [ Speaking in Foreign Language ]
24:41 >> In the hospital in Nablus that night, Karim's uncle, Ashraf Al-Mazri, was visiting his nephew,
24:48 as the hospital's CCTV captured a live Mastavim operation.
24:54 >>
25:24 [ Speaking in Foreign Language ]
25:34 >> In the first series of Fauda, the plot was eerily similar.
25:42 Abu Ahmed had been taken to hospital after being shot by Doran.
25:48 But before the undercover team could get to him, he was spirited away with the help of Dr. Shirin.
25:54 Karim's family thought he'd be safe from the Israelis in the hospital.
26:04 >>
26:26 >>
26:54 >> It was the experiences of these Palestinian mothers like Rana that the creators of Fauda wanted to put on screen.
27:02 >>
27:24 >>
27:33 >> The Palestinian scenes in Fauda aren't filmed on the West Bank, but in Israeli Arab cities.
27:40 Kfar Qasim, north of Tel Aviv, has been turned into a film set.
27:47 Some of the locals have even been roped in as extras.
27:51 >>
27:58 >> Rotem's directing a big cast and crew, a mixture of Arabs and Jews.
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28:53 >>
29:11 >> Modesty forbids local Arab women acting as extras,
29:18 so the Israeli production company have dressed up some of their own staff.
29:23 >>
29:51 >>
30:00 >>
30:05 >> Not all Israeli Arabs who work in the film business are happy with Fauda and the world it presents.
30:11 >>
30:15 >> A well-known Israeli Arab actress was offered a role in the first series of Fauda.
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