Responsible Storytelling - Lior Raz on Fauda's origins
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00:00Have you been surprised then by how your distinctly Israeli story has resonated globally?
00:10Of course. Of course. When we wrote Fauda, first of all, nobody wanted it in Israel, you know?
00:16Really?
00:17Yeah. We went to any channel in Israel and nobody wanted it.
00:20Why?
00:21First of all, I'll tell you the story.
00:25Okay.
00:26It's a story. When we started to write Fauda, I was a creative director in BBDO.
00:33My partner, Avi, was a writer. He was a journalist. He's still a journalist.
00:38And we met in the reserve. We both were in the special forces in Duvdevan unit.
00:43So we met in the reverse, the reverse, reserves.
00:48It reminds me, okay, that's enough.
00:51So we were in reserves and he asked me a special question, the most important question that someone asked me in my life.
00:58He asked me if I have a dream.
01:00And I looked at him and said, yes, you see those undercover people here?
01:05I have a dream to write something about them, a story, a book, a movie, I don't know what.
01:10But to tell their story, their price that they are paying for the action, their families, everyone who's surrounding them.
01:17And Avi said that he had the same dream for a long time.
01:21He said, okay, let's write together.
01:24And I said, but I have PTSD, but also I have ADHD.
01:27So I cannot write very well.
01:33He said, come on, let's have some drinks together and let's start to write.
01:37And we were drunk for a month.
01:39And we started to write Fauda.
01:42And then after we had the synopsis of the series, we thought it was like easy sell, right?
01:49So we went to Channel 12 Keshet for the first time and we were presenting there.
01:54And after we did the presentation, one of them said, guys, we don't need it.
02:00Thank you very much.
02:02And I was shocked because I thought it's a great show.
02:06But I understand them.
02:08A group of two punks from Jerusalem was writing a new show about Palestinians and Israelis fighting.
02:14I can understand those guys who said no.
02:16So they said no.
02:17We went to Channel 10.
02:18Channel 10 said it's a great show, but they don't have the budget.
02:22And then we went to Channel 13.
02:26And they said no because it's in Arabic and Hebrew and it's crazy.
02:30People want to listen to this show or watch this kind of a show.
02:34And then we went to Yes.
02:35Yes, it's a satellite channel in Israel.
02:38And I remember that we were sitting there.
02:40I was presenting the show.
02:42And there was the head of content and three women who was in charge of the content as well with him.
02:48And while I was doing the presentation, the three women did the same movement with the same sound at the same time.
02:54They did something like this.
02:58And I stopped and I said, why you two to me?
03:00What's going on?
03:03And one of them said, listen, it's a show that just men will watch.
03:07It's about security.
03:09It's about fighting.
03:11It's about we don't understand.
03:13I don't see any women will watch that show.
03:16So after the show went out, so they did a poll.
03:19First of all, it was the most viewed show in Israel ever.
03:22Second of all, the majority of the viewers were women.
03:27I don't know why.
03:29I can assume.
03:31No, no.
03:33I was talking about other member of my team.
03:37Okay.
03:39So, yeah, nobody wanted it.
03:42And we just wanted to write a show about our experience in life.
03:46And this is my obligation to write stories that people will love and will want to see.
03:53And I'm not feeling that I'm doing propaganda.
03:56I don't want to do propaganda.
03:58I want people to understand who we are and what our needs and what makes us laugh,
04:03what makes us fall in love, you know, as real people.