Fauda packs a punch, but audiences love it

The fourth season of the Israeli drama Fauda has taken Netflix by storm, and is top of the streaming charts in Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Jordan, among many other countries in the world.

Few are as amazed by this as the co-writers, Avi Issacharoff and Lior Raz (who also stars in the series). “It’s kinda crazy that it’s so popular in Arab countries, and it has become even more so this season,” Issacharoff told the SA Jewish Report this week. “Though I’m trying to get used to the idea, it still shocks me. It’s the thing you don’t plan or see coming, but it’s fantastic.”

Issacharoff is an award-winning Israeli journalist who for decades covered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and drew on his experience a great deal in writing this screenplay.

He believes the show’s popularity in Arab countries is partly due to it being half in Hebrew, half in Arabic, and partly because in showing the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, they “don’t just portray the other side as the enemy, but as real people with families”.

However, Hamas apparently didn’t approve of Fauda’s portrayal of the conflict, so the terrorist organisation countered the Israeli series with its own television drama, Fist of the Free.

Issacharoff shrugs this off, saying, “I heard. I haven’t seen it, but it is interesting that they feel the need to do this.”

Raz and Issacharoff’s journey to Fauda began one night in about 2010, when they were on miluim (reserve military duty) together. They were both part of the Duvdevan unit, an anti-terrorism unit known for its undercover operations in urban areas.

“We were watching a group of young soldiers who had just finished their course in our unit,” Issacharoff said. “We were amused as they were dancing and singing in Arabic. We got to talking about writing about our experiences. Lior wanted to write a movie, and I wanted to write a book.”

Two weeks later, the two met in Tel Aviv and started working on their ideas, not then quite clear that it would be a television series or what the end product would look like.

“We wanted to portray on the one hand what it’s like working in an undercover unit, and on the other, to show the Palestinian side, meaning the wanted terrorists I had come to understand as a journalist,” he said.

With some research and their experiences, having both done undercover work, and Issacharoff having covered conflict in the West Bank and Gaza since 2000, they began creating Fauda (which means “chaos” in Arabic and is the emergency word the undercover soldiers used when they are exposed).

“Our aim is to make it so realistic, the audience feels like they can almost smell the surroundings they are watching,” he says. To ensure authenticity, they made sure to have Arabs playing Arabs and Jews playing Jews, and those who didn’t speak Arabic had to learn and make sure to get the accents correct to the Ramallah dialect.

Taking the script to networks, they got a lot of “nos”, until Yes Studios agreed to take them on. After the first series aired in Israel, Netflix also wanted the series.

While it’s hugely popular in Israel, having won numerous Israeli Academy Awards, the show is controversial, with some saying it’s too honest and shows Israel in a bad light.

“We’re not in the business of hasbara [public diplomacy], we’re trying to create a great, authentic story. Some say we aren’t left enough, others claim we’re not right-wing enough. I’ve been accused of being a left-wing traitor and a right-wing radical who doesn’t care about Palestinians.

“So, as long as we get flak from both sides, I think we can relax on our couches, drink a beer, and say, ‘Baruch Hashem, we’re probably doing a great job!’”

In trying to ensure authenticity, the duo show the deep psychological scars attained by working for years in such units. “So many people serving in these units suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] and carry with them deep scars for years, even decades. We didn’t want to shove this under the carpet,” Issacharoff said.

“We all carry our memories – some are tough and others funny. As for Lior and I, we don’t suffer from PTSD that prevents us from functioning on all levels, but we have friends who have paid a heavy price and still suffer.”

Raz and Issacharoff specifically chose not to focus on young recruits in Duvdevan, but the “seasoned soldiers in order to deal with their sensitive and raw issues relating to their choices and families, children, and ex-wives”. Also, he strongly believes that older soldiers are better equipped for these units as they have more experience in tackling difficult situations and are more able to cope with the trauma they face on the job.

In a recent interview in Hollywood Reporter, Raz said that while their (his and Issacharoff’s) instinct is to steer clear of their own wounds, they needed to open them for the sake of the authenticity of Fauda. “So, painfully, we’re opening our wounds slowly and having to go deep, deep inside to understand our own emotional needs. It’s tough, but ultimately the best thing for the show.”

Said Issacharoff, “Bottom line, we set out to show the complexities of the situation so that people might be able to understand that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict isn’t simple. It’s not about good or bad, black or white, David and Goliath. It’s complicated and has so many nuances that are extraordinarily difficult to deal with and sort out.”

As for how this plays out in politics right now, Issacharoff said it was “sad, but true” that there was no peace deal or solution on the Israeli government’s table. “Let’s face it, the Israeli political reality looks like hell. What can I say?”

Photo Credit: Ohad Romano