Fauda's Avi Issacharoff and Lior Raz with Tatiana Siegel

obviously a lot of lot of fans here tonight a few so maybe let's start with one of the things that I found so compelling is the casting choices you made for this series and I think it's a point that can't be under estimated enough because when you look at the history of sort of terrorism depicted in TV it's always even until recently people who were not Arabic speakers playing their Arabic speaking roles and I remember last year watching 24s reboot the pilot episode and on the screen right as the episode ended the credits come up jihadi number one jihadi number two jihadi number three and I kid not I looked this up today because it said Peter Mario and Julius and I was like okay first of all they don't even have names as characters and second of all they are not played by so I want to hear that's sort of a long way of introducing the question of what was the considerations behind the kind of casting you did Kathy in general was not an easy task but I think that we started with one very kind of a bet a big bet and that was the oh us and Batman started but for us it was pretty natural and authentic you know we wanted it to be authentic that the Arab characters would be Arabs the Jewish characters would be Jewish that was it was pretty easy in a way though very groundbreaking because you do not see that very often and when you saw that in previous depictions did you sort of like think like this is not authentic when you as a viewer even though that was I think that hi everyone I think that for me and for avi of authenticity was our main concern in everything in every aspect of the show it was about the art but the clothes about the casting everything so we want we really wanted to have people that the actors the real actors will will understand and will understand there the way and the place that the Palestinian is coming from and there were Arabs and in Israel we have plenty of Arabs because it's an Israel and in in Hollywood less probably so right right and for us as well you know the the Israelis actors who played in Arabic we had to study and to learn Arabic for the show like Ayub captain are you we don't know Arabic at all so he had to learn phonetically to speak Arabic for the show but we worked so hard about the accent you know Island for six months I think just to pronounce well the word that we are speaking because we wanted to talk Arabic from the region from Ramallah region so it's a specific delicate dialectic yeah yeah thank you you know this world yeah and so it was for us it was very important how controversial is the series back in your native Israel if at all I mean like I've read I tried to do you know as much research as I can as I could before tonight obviously it's very embraced and embraced by unlikely corners of you know you would think like oh I'm surprised by that but at the same time I'm not surprised but has it been controversial wasn't controversial I don't think so no no but this is what was our concern because in the beginning when we wrote the show we thought that we go into that people from the right-wingers in Israel will hate us because we're writing we humanizing the terrorists right we thought that the left-wing will hate us because we are showing like terrorists doing bad stuff and Israeli soldiers doing like unmoral thing we thought that may talent may love our wives that are sitting here tonight they are the only ones are going to see the show more or less yes and in the end of the day what happened that I remember that that me and avi the the show went out in Sunday the first episode and I told him you're gonna read Haaretz it's a left-wing newspaper in Israel I will read Maccoby shown it's a it's a right-wing and let's see what they saying about us and it was like we called each other and we said I said avi I don't believe it I don't believe it they love us and he said yeah I don't believe it as well they love us here as well and what happened I think and this is one of the greatest things that happened because of the show that right wings in Israel think it's a right wing show left wing think it's a left wing show and Palestinians some of them think it's a Palestinian show so we're good you managed to please all parties which is virtually impossible you know it reminds me of the store is something that happened to us during the shooting ink felt custom of the second season and Leo was doing his thing and they were shooting and I mean not shooting shooting but right I was shooting yeah and two local guys Palestinians funk [ __ ] us and Israeli Arabs approached me and said are you the creator of the show said yes they said we want to be part of the show as actors and I said okay what do you want to do like do you want to be Hamas do you want to be fat act they said no no no we want to be undercover soldiers and these are two Israeli Palestinians Arabs that want to become undercover soldiers that was the dream as actors of course interesting that's very interesting now were you surprised that the far-right didn't you know become like make this their outrage of the of the week or totally totally now especially in the Israel but not only in Israel when you have you know you have all this kind of either that's your very right-wing or very left-wing that you cannot just present kind of a TV show that would be interesting you need to be affiliated with one of the sides and we expected we really expected just like Leo mentioned that would be slaughtered by the critics law that would be slaughtered by the politicians and everyone embraced us and everyone liked the show even you know it's funny but even with Hamas it was kind of no really I mean Hamas yes they published a few articles against the show called it a kind of a Zionist propaganda saying that it's an Israeli attempt to win Hamas in the cinema field after failing to win Hamas in the battlefield and then they showed a link to the first episode of father Fred yeah and I was shocked I think that all of us were shocked yeah there you go okay and by the way has Prime Minister Netanyahu weighed in at all like his he is there like any sense that he's watching it secretly or Bibi Netanyahu let's not talk about Bibi Netanyahu okay III can move on we get a question from the audience okay so tell you something that I got a phone call from one of the highest ministers of in Israel who said that he want to participate in third season of the show and we said no okay no thank you do you get feedback from Netflix of where this series is performing the best like I would imagine the United States and Israel are probably the number one in number two but I'd be curious what kind of feedback you're getting from other parts of the world where it's playing we're getting feedback through the social media a lot okay and we know it's a diplomatic way of saying Netflix doesn't tell us right right no no we know we know but we know that in Argentina it's huge in Brazil it's huge I know that people in Saudi Arabia watch it Kuwait the the Gulf everywhere it's it's everywhere really it's one of the I think people watch it all over the world you know that Abu Ahmed war Hisham Suleiman the guy who plays abroad in the first season he got to Doha to cut up and he sat down in the lobby of a hotel five-star hotel and he told us that every couple of minutes someone approached him in Doha in Kedah and asked for a selfie with a Bachmann and people from Iraq from Lebanon from Bahrain from so many different places now you might say okay he's the terrorist they like him over there then he was shooting for another TV show in a settlement that is called Kiryat Arba which is not like the most moderate settlement on earth okay and over there in Kiryat Arba people were running at him like crazy just for a selfie with the most famous terrorists on earth back then of 2015 that's that's pretty incredible no I'm a mmm I may be incorrect about this but is it not airing in France there's two countries it doesn't know it's it's earned now it's airing they show it in France in Caen plus it's a it's another because we sold it to Frenchmen always sold it with to Netflix okay but so wasn't like a ante is real no no no not at all that's business money okay we don't care about business no not about the money we are in a Jewish Center we can laugh about it [Applause] so it is now finally airing in France and and but what kinds of like surprising feedback have you received I'll tell you something that happened to me when we sold Fowler to Netflix I didn't know it's become big in the US so the first time I've floated from Israel to Miami and I don't know if you know but as an Israeli when you go to through the immigration it's it's quite scary you know you think they're gonna interrogate you because you know I look like it doesn't matter and so I remember I went there I was in line and there was like an officer who was sitting behind the glass and she was looking at me she was staring at me and I was so scared I said I I thought that they're going in to interrogate me and I just walked there and I just realized that I don't want her to talk to me so I I asked the guy in front of me to go there and I will go there because she was looking at me in a strange way and then she looked at me said you come over here and I was why did what did I do what happened why don't we and I would started to sweat and then and she looked at me stare at me and she said what about second season Oh father so yeah you know I thought okay doesn't matter was a funny guy it was fine has there been any approaches made to you to do an English to buy the remake rights for English language like the way homeland was originally an Israeli show in Hebrew and then became an annuity va's kind of overtures this is what we had in mind when we started the road and it was a kind of a very interesting journey I don't know if we have the time I mean you wanna if he'd started around 2010 out of a kind of an accidental meeting between Leo and I somewhere not far from home Allah and we witnessing we were watching a group of undercover soldier finishing the course and over there you know I asked leo that I knew him since childhood and like really since we was 16 17 and we both had long curly hair yeah and a bit taller yes a nicer yeah and I asked him if he has a dream and Leo said I thought about writing something about these kinds of units and I said you know what I I thought about the same direction let's meet and we've met and we talked and suddenly we came with an idea of a TV show then we went to sell it do you remember that yeah it wasn't easy no nobody wanted the show you know in Israel we went to the biggest broadcasters in Israel and Keshet Russia and we went to cash it and they said in the they looked at us and said show about Arabs and Jews who want who want to watch this show it's so boring yeah they ask if we have comedy if we have comedy about Arabs and Jews they will bite it and we said it's not we're not comedian so you are funny guy and and then we went to channel 10 a channel Russia and Russia didn't want to do and then channel 10 said it's amazing show beautiful show we really really want to do it but we don't have the money and then we went to yes and yes actually we had this presentation amazing presentations and right you remember yeah I mean you know you remember it is amazing I think that it was kind of difficult because there was one man in the room three women and the man was totally enthusiastic about the show and he was the VP of content in the ass and he was really into it and the three women in the room were doing all kinds of faces and sounds like I didn't we didn't get it like we really didn't get it and we asked him what's wrong when and they said this is a show only for men women want to watch the show and we said why they said all those explosions what about relationship but at the end after they aired the first season of father they made the kind of a poll in yes and they found out that more women watch the show comparing two men because of me yes no I'm just kidding it's a joke it's a joke that goes to show that some of these people who have these jobs don't necessarily know what they're talking about no but listen it's a gamble because this was the first show that means IV wrote so we didn't wrote anything before so I can understand them it was a huge gamble yes they did it and we love them and we love Netflix just so the audience know it's like what is yes like I mean it's like kind of comparable to like FX and FX okay satellite company in Israel the TV satellite okay and into the budgets for a series different wildly versus ridiculous it's really good no like the whole two seasons costs like one pilot episode in a action TV like their craft services but how repeat that again the whole two seasons cost like one episode in a US because it looks fantastic and now Netflix knows you don't need money to spend should get a great show no but back to the question of do you have you been approached to do sort of a yes yeah this is what we really wanted because in Israel there was homeland and you know it was how to film in the beginning and in treatment that it was Betty pooled Israeli version and we thought that this is the way that we can make it in America you know if someone will write will make like remake for father in the u.s. so we actually a guy approached us someone who's Oscar winner who really wanted to write about to write with us the show in English but then Netflix bought us and I think this is what so amazing because it's so successful but it's the original material and it's not something that you know American actor will act like the wrong and or someone else or an undercover it shocked us at the end of the day it's really shocked us that it became successful in the in the world not only in the US but also in other parts of the world and for us one of the major things was about being authentic just like we discussed before you know keeping the Arabic keeping the Hebrew and then you understand that people love to hear different languages foreign languages Arabic Hebrew they don't want to hear the dubbed version for example they insist on listening to the Arab to the Arabic and Hebrew versions and watching the subtitles of absolutely like a different you know what a hospital looks like in a different part of the world or sometimes like seeing everyone smoke on screen feels like I'm time traveling because like in America like you never see that anymore so yeah but in Israel more people smoke and in the West Bank much more people smoke and I'm still traveling the West Bank as a journalist so I see that so yes we smoke a lot in the show you know one yeah the one smokes like crazy yes but only in the show but only in the show but yeah we just discussed it before and and and when we wrote the show I didn't smoke I quit smoking and I remember I was so I wanted to smoke so much so every time every scene that we wrote I said now he's smoking a cigarette and now he's smoking another cigarette and he asked for a cigarette from someone else and this is why their own smoke so much so half of the budget of the show was about cigarettes makes perfect sense now I don't know how much of a movement this was or if it was just a couple of headlines but there was there were some efforts to get Netflix to drop it as part of the people people who are in the divest from Israel movement first of all what do you say to the critics who want to show like thought to be dropped from Netflix because this is wrong this is a mistake and it's not just a mistake it's ridiculous really what the BDS the BDS movement it's like they don't want to take the show out from Netflix they just want to take us out from Israel and I think it's much more than that and I think it that it's it's it's really ridiculous but it was a kind of a good PR for yeah yeah we liked it yeah like it ends up kind of giving some needed you know like tension to the situation yeah yeah totally but I guess you hear these voices and it's fine you know to hear the critics it's fine to get those even negative critics you know some I just read there something in never mind where but one of these newspapers that wrote about us that we don't show the real occupation and even the checkpoint in father looks like a checkpoint between the Netherlands and Belgium something like that and the guy who wrote it doesn't know that we shot it in the real checkpoint in Israel and it's ridiculous and I read it and I think like when is this guy when was the last time that this guy visited the West Bank right if ever yeah yeah yeah that's I find that sometimes the biggest critics of things are the people who sort of have the least knowledge of a situation like over there but there is a very sort of speak to this issue of anti-israel sentiment can sometimes I mean sometimes it's like obviously people can have it and be informed and say opinions but it's an it's a sort of socially acceptable way to be anti-semitic I find in in some countries what do you think she's right okay you're right look then again I think that much of the critics the negative ones on father weren't about father as a TV show they didn't say it's a bad acting they didn't say it's a bad directing or the shooting wasn't good and the music was bad no they had a political issue with the State of Israel with the occupation again but then again this is a TV show come on let us watch the TV show and if you have your criticism about the TV show say it but they didn't say it and I think that instead you know I think that even the critics even the negative ones of them what they wrote well the the occupation the Palestinians Israelis ah la la la but you cannot stop binging the show and so [Applause] in terms of would you potentially do a film about a film like a two-hour version for we're writing now two new TV shows for Netflix we're writing third season of fowl and we're writing a new movie not about father so I think the next three years we cannot write anything else except you are so busy as a journalist obvious as a journalist and as the future actress I mean I don't know if it was senior I'm gonna do a spoiler here but at the second season of fodder I'm gonna kind of a big role on the 10th episode barbershop in a barbershop I swear really it's in a barbershop I think we have some people who definitely have gotten that far and the season and so we or tell us a little bit about your acting career outside of so you're in Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene and it's a movie with Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara yeah I had small part nothing nothing to write home about and but now I just we finished I finished a movie MGM movie called operation finale it's about the capture of Eichmann well it was in Argentina we shot it in Argentina with Ben Kingsley Oscar Isaac Melanie Lauren and I played the head of the Mossad Sol Sol and now we have a lot of options many options and in our new shows on Netflix I'm going to play the lead act the lead role as well so our hands are full okay [Applause] tell us a little bit about your time in the IDF Special Ops which I assume is sort of akin to the in the u.s. the Navy SEALs not a baby seals no no but you go I'm just kidding no it's not the Navy SEALs it's like the Navy SEALs like a commando Special Forces in in the units that I used to serve it's an undercover unit who is doing quite similar thing that you see in the show more or less that's it how long three years of mandatory and then four in the reserve a few I think like two five six years ago okay and can you give a specific or just an anecdote from your time that isn't too painful to relate but you know just something that I'm just I'm fascinated by what it would be like to be I don't think that I can't I think that you need to be a yeah first of all in order to be in this undercover units you have to be an amazing actor okay yeah yeah yeah really because if I will act not so well in this operation finale movie in The Hollywood Reporter you will write about me is a bad actor yeah but on fear you all feel you have to act for your life and if you're not a good actor you can die and your friends can die and terrorists that you run after for a long time can run away just because of your bad acting if you don't have the right accent if you are a little bit scared if you don't know how to move and the body language is different so you have to be an amazing actor or not to be in this kind of Special Forces and also you have to have to be like a nice man Iseman okay breathing technique sir this is what I'm doing yoga I have this breathing technique not not on field yeah it could be funny to be in Annapolis than yeah yeah while you're serving the baklava at the wedding ya know so no breathing techniques but no you have to be just just imagine yourself that you go out on the field and you are surrounded by terrorists and you speak in a different language you have a different body language and they're telling you in the radio we don't know where is the terrorists just do something and then you have to do something and when you do that you start to smoke you go and buy coffee Sarah Monica martini away it's an Arabic brick give me coffee please and then in the radio they telling you is just behind you but you just got the coffee and you have any ask you if you want it with sugar or not and you say yeah with sugar please and they telling you in the in the radio you have nine seconds six seconds so you say thank you very much for the coffee four seconds three seconds and then you got the go and and you just like become like a combat dog and it's a bad coffee it's a bad coffee yeah no so this is what I mean when you say you have to be a nice man yeah yeah I think that what we did in the show is that we took many of the experiences on the ground many of the memories that we ate that Leo had many of the experiences that I had as a journalist from visits in Gaza Strip in the West Bank meeting with Palestinians officials non official citizens Hamas Hamas say a leaders I have a great picture in Facebook back in the time with smile hanya the leader of Hamas in Gaza and you know what we try to do is to take all these toys all these experiences and to put them on the screen to build them on our TV show and it wasn't that easy I must say I mean some of the experiences were very hard some of them were very sad I don't know if Leo wants to share that here but it wasn't easy to get all those experiences and memories out there on the screen and to talk about it and to discuss it and to discuss about the price that these soldiers at the end of the day are paying to discuss the price that the families of the terrorists are paying you know usually when you talk about the terrorists you only mention hey it's a bad guy that's it he wants to kill this and that but it's very rare to see what happens with his family was the wife with the kids when the IDF goes storms to storms their houses when their Shin Bet is arresting them to investigate - to interrogate them so it's not easy and what we were trying to show more than anything else is the price of the war in both sides what you say is the biggest misconception people spend a lot of time there it's a great place I myself know really I know that I haven't been there for the last 11 years I'm not allowed to go there anymore since 2007 but that was one of my favorite places on earth I mean as a journalist you know every time that I went there there's a great beach of there's great food amazing people a funny warm etc but every time that when there's something crazy happened really I mean like bombing and killing and assassinations and it was like heaven for it for a reporter really I mean every time that you go there boom something happens so and you just need to be there on the ground and you have so many different experiences I'm gonna speak shortly about one of them because that gave us also the idea for the name of the show powder you know powder means chaos and what is this word also because of that what the Israel is report when they are being exposed on the ground but sometimes from the Palestinian point of view no there was chaos on the streets of Gaza and the West Bank and I remember myself in Gaza going with a group of law and order people patrolling the streets of Gaza 2006 and then we stopped and talked and chat and one of them was saying that they've been working 24/7 and I asked him how come I mean when you go to sleep and it's a law-and-order guy and he said we do not go to sleep and I said what do you mean and he said he put his hand into his pocket pulled out a pill and he showed it to me and he said we take that and it gives us a lot of energy and I was like what do you mean energy what is this pill and he said well it's called ecstasy and this is the equivalent of the FBI in Gaza back at that time and I said but do you understand this is drugs they said yes but we have to stay awake in order to fight in order to work Rob LA then he asked me IV how much does this cost in Tel Aviv I said I don't know but I can find out if you want me to so he said please do so I called someone especially me and especially told me it's fifty shekels so I closed the phone and I said fifty shekels each and his eyes were like that and he said if I would give you two thousand pills for 30 shekels would you take that and since then we've been smilingly over yes loving loving and smiling and rich and awake yeah all right so here are some questions from the audience will there ever be peace and is a two-state solution possible we need to answer that you we have hope we have hope okay we have the hope that we have peace one day and when I see the relationship between Germany and Israel when I see the relationship between Japan and the US when I see the relationship between England and Germany I have hope that one day and they had like a big Wars not like the Palestinian the Israelis one day will have peace at the same at the same way that we have between Israel and Germany and in a in a way more pessimistic and in a way also optimistic because the two-state solution is irrelevant today it doesn't really exist and at the same time there's no other solution so I think that this is why we still hope that one day there will be two-state solution okay where does the Israeli creative spirit come from do what Israeli creative spirit come from spirit yeah inspiration yeah this sort of like you know depicting and television yeah we understand that question so first of all I think you have to be very creative in Israel in order to live and I think we in Israel when you are when you when you live in Israel it's just like this is this is a question it's about why we are startup nation and I think it's the same what happening in the technology now happening in in in the culture scene in Israel in the TV in the TV and movies and because we are succeeding now all over the world not just me and avi and and I think it's because for us I know avi I'll tell you an example when we were together and we went to sell the show and and I told Harvey we went down they said no cash it said no and we went down and I said to Harvey listen they understand television they know television probably our show is not so good our idea is not so good and have you looked at me and he told me something that we used to say in the army and I'll say it in Hebrew and then he will translate it to English she said Marta Alda so Martin died what are you a girl and it's it's an army way of speaking and and for us we don't see actually I said maybe you are wrong no I think we don't see obstacles you know because when we see an obstacle we go forward we don't see we have to create a way to Sarat to be to go behind him to go above him under under the obstacle and I think this is why we have to create to be creatives all the time I think the experience in the Army gave us the knowledge how to be creative as well if there's something to be said for just that speech is not it does not seem to be ever repressed like people have the freedom of speech in Israel it seems like even more so than in other Western countries like for example if if Netanyahu hated your show he's not going to try and get it off the air or anything there doesn't see you don't see that words you do see that and other that there will be more of a sort of like I find this uncomfortable get rid of it in other country no no it's not the case this is not the case but anyway we love Netanyahu just but we love him so no it's not like that Israel doesn't suffer from this kind of a censorship I mean there is military censorship more about there about the journalism but not about TV shows or dramatic TV shows all right and I would think that that lends itself to the creative process like not being like okay we can do whatever we want no one's gonna pull this off the air no no okay how about for viewers that know little about the israeli-palestinian conflict what do you hope they gather understand about the climate this is from Natalie I like when people write their names with the questions so what was the question sorry Natalie I didn't what do you hope that the average viewer who perhaps knows very little about the israeli-palestinian conflict what they will take away I think what avi said in the beginning that we wanted to talk about the price that people paying mental price and physics physical price and how is it to live in a war zone and and it's not so easy and we want people to understand that war is bad that's it I think that one of the aims of the show was to show the complexity of the conflict meaning you know that many people in the world think about the israeli-palestinian conflict in very kind of shallow but then again it's a kind of epidemic all over the world keep it simple be news or fake news be right or wrong be just like that and you know what as people that are living in Israel as people that were there on the ground and still see things from very close I think that one of the messages of the show is that it's not about that not at all it's so complicated and at the end of the day there's so many different shades of this gray area of the conflict it's so complicated to understand that that sometimes the bad guy is a good guy and sometimes the good guy is a bad guy and this is war and war is not simple and war is bad but it's not simple okay what is the symbolism behind Doron and his father speaking Arabic at home and your character feeling more comfortable speaking Arabic than Hebrew even in Israel so out top if you saw my father is very similar to my real father in life really because my father speaks Arabic at home he's from Iraq when I grew up we used to talk in Arabic at home and and and I think Doron feel and and and there is a sentence sentence that is saying to Shireen the father one day he say he's tell her we are Arab Jews she asked him why how you speak Arabic so good he said we are Arab Jews there is Christian Arabs there are Muslims are ABS there is our abuse we grew up in Iraq my father grew up in Iraq in my home we were hearing Arabic Arab Arabic music for Adela trash Mozart and and and but it was it was together and and I think for those people the Arabic language it's it's this is the their basic this is their base this is where they coming from and the culture it's the same culture and we are so similar you know what I'm going and I'm flying a lot and I'm traveling a lot and the people that I'm getting connected immediately are people from the Middle East not Israelis not just Israelis immediately we have the same temper and [Music] [Applause] and it's and and and you know it's we are very similar we don't know that people don't understand that but we are very similar okay here's a question do the Arab actors feel threatened by Palestinians or Arabs that denounce the show not at all no I think that they're pretty much satisfied with being on the show I don't think that any one of them regret it even one second that he was in fodder but now he's becoming more and more famous you know III think that Hisham Suleiman in the first season for example played a Hamas terrorist became huge in Israel he's acting in other TV shows he's acting in theater of course and fearlessness ah who plays democracy in the second season who's brilliant guy brilliant actor 23 years old that's it and one of the craziest things that you know this guy is playing a terrorist in between Hamas and sometimes Isis and then Hamas and then hi [ __ ] like the worst guy on earth someone that you know his own society doesn't like him his own family and despised him for what he does and in Israel he became a sex symbol I swear really he's huge women love it you used to say it about me deal you're my sexy butt and I was curious was there ever tension on the set like if something in real life happened during filming that sort of like me to everyone kind of like revert to their teams in the opposite they think right heartening to hear we used to when we shot the first season we shot it during the Gaza war there was like what the name of the 2014 1 2014 and operation edge right protective edge and whatever that whatever one of those one of those wars that we had and at that time we had to shoot in custom and for custom it's an Arab village in Israel and I remember that we can't sell the first day because we were afraid you didn't know what go went what's going to be there how they will accept us and I think at that night one of the officials call us from for custom and he said so I don't quote me but he said something like when you try to when you when you ask to shoot here you said we talked about coexistence so let's talk about coexistence during war because the missiles I don't know if you are are above Jew and at that minute we had this decision that we're going day later we went like 150 people Jews Arabs we stayed there for a month and a half or two months in a bubble of creativity and glove and and and care and honor with the sirens going with the sirens with the missiles when there were when there were sirens armed and Jews kids not kids we went together to the shelter to hide and it was amazing experience I think I think everyone who was there and this summer will not forget it to the rest of his life [Applause] here's a question about somebody says that you've been getting criticized from a bit from Palestinian sympathizers and outlets like the New York Times are you guys going to try to be more sympathetic to the Palestinians in upcoming seasons and do you believe you're sympathetic to Palestinians already I want to say something about it we are Israelis we're writing an Israeli show with the narrative is Israeli me and avi Zionists I really I I really want to tell to all those critics who asked us to to make the Palestinians to bring Palestinians writers do you know if Palestinians want to write a show this should write a show that's it then again it's pretty fun to have the all those critics criticizing the show for the political point of view I'm not from the TV point of view yeah and from the TV point of view I think that most of the critics agree that it's a good show I think you know 2017 the New York Times chose us to be one of the best ten TV shows in the wall and for us even you know sometimes bad criticism is good for us it's it's eye-opening and it's challenging for us I think that for Leo and myself we're coming for the third season from a very kind of an table table like a page like white paper of the mind so yeah in order to to have even a better season for the third season you know so it doesn't really get to our thoughts and minds like hey how can we be more sympathetic for the Palestinians or maybe we should be more sympathetic for the Israelis know we want to have a good TV show that's it simple as that if you have somebody who keeps it fair and balanced and I just picture like somebody like checking boxes like did we do an arc that you know like then you don't have a TV show yeah this is not a political manifest I know that it deals with politics it deals with reality but it's not a realistic show it's drama and I know that some people tend to forget that and they say hey it's not it's not for real it didn't happen what about this what about that and hey it's fiction if someone forgot that yeah okay somebody says I'm so glad that Steve got his own story arc in season 2 he is a great character agreed how did you create Steve and why does he have an American name oh it's funny it's it's a good question yeah so in my team in the Army there is a guy named Steve real guy named Steven it's they all look alike they are the same just the same but if it is nickname it it is nickname Steve because the true name was helped in the intro is his true name is herzl and also in the show we gave him the name hurt so she asked him what your true name and he say hurts but how he got this name Steve because when he came to the team he was just hurt so and then there was like a sketch in Israel about Israel who lives here in New York and the sketch was a guy calling and say hi it's Steve Steve calling Steve calling and they said who Steve's and Elton else and it's an attack itself about the Israelis of changing their name whether when they are living here so this is why we call them Steve somebody asks do you ever have to bend the truth your experiences in order to advance the plot I think you answered that just when you said it's fiction like of course all right yeah now listen you won't see an Israeli undercover soldier falling in love for Palestinian doctrine i I know I know but it's really soldiers not kidding up kidnapping a sheik and torture him it's not it's not happening it's a show it's a TV show that's it yeah we're sorry we don't do that no no Romeo and Juliet the Israeli Palestinian version but I'm curious is there any intro marriage any in Israel yes of course yes like what percentage low very long yeah yeah I you know I got the chance to meet a couple in a refugee camp called the lab right outside of in-between Bethlehem and curve one and over there she was Jewish he was Muslim Palestinian and they got married and they live in a refugee camp and also my Arabic teacher in Jaffa his wife she is she's Jewish and his his Muslim is like Sufi Sufi it's kind of a Muslim way of living and they live together there kids going to a school that they speak Arabic and Hebrew as well they have beautiful marriage what aspects of the show setting or culture are the hardest to translate and show to foreigners we should ask the foreigners whoever wrote that no no it's it's then again it's very challenging because when we are writing the show we're focusing on the Israeli audience then again this is what we have in mind we didn't think about writing a show for Americans for Europeans or whatever we are just thinking about the Israeli audience and then when you take it outside you understand that there will be some not obstacles but some misunderstandings some sometimes that you missed this point or that point you try to make it as simple as possible in order that everyone would understand but at the end of the day I think that most of the people here and outside that watch the show manage to understand even the smallest things that we put in the show even even the smallest jokes that we put in there in the show you know we were criticized for being unpolitical II correct I think that that was one of the greatest challenges because in Israel were less politically correct about everything and sometimes it's good sometimes it's bad but I I think that even about that some people like this authenticity is their concern you are giving away army secrets well you know what curious if anyone has ever is that you you know listen we are you can't the censorship we are we're censorship in Israel but we are the best censors because we used to I used to be in this unit these are this is my friends my they are my second family there I wanted to protect them we wanted to protect them you could hurt we didn't showed anything if you open you know if you go to to YouTube you rightly starve aimed of the van you will see things that we didn't put in the in the inner in the TV show and you know what I'll give you an example we wrote about undercover when we go in infiltrate into the hospital and when we wrote it you know it's it's nobody wouldn't in in my unit we never did it never go in and fro try to - aunt was former from our site was an imagination and few months later when the show was out in Israel there was CCTV cameras that showed Israelis I'm the cover getting in into a hospital in Nablus I think it was so it was no you can read why did you choose to make season 2 more graphic than season one and has Isis commented on the show does Isis review they they they claim that the authenticity of the actor that played that no I'm kidding guys yes now they didn't we try to steal some of their actions to the show of course I mean maybe they mad at us for doing that but sorry I mean we try to make it as very similar to what they like the dis warned that al mock Rossi has to Isis we took it from a real spawn that you know jihadists are making for al-baghdadi the guy that leads Isis so it's not that the Isis were mad at us or something they mad at us in general they don't like us there's nothing season three could do to win them over so how long does it take to shoot one episode and do you shoot them in sequence or do you put scenes together in editing we're shooting it all at the same time we can shoot scene in one day seen from the first episode and it the same day we're going to shoot a scene from the last episode it's like we do it by locations so it's like we shot it in three months I think the whole season now that the budget allowed five days of shooting or five and a half days for shooting preparing episode that's it now you've already answered this to some degree but given somebody wrote given how poorly Israel is portrayed in most media and the enormous popularity and influence powder has do you feel as Israeli patriots an obligation to change the way Israel is perceived by the world for the better not really I mean this is not the show okay the show is not about Hezbollah our mission wasn't about improving Israel's image in the world that wasn't that and as I mentioned before our aim was to to bring a good TV show and to bring the audience to look at the conflict from a different perspective but it's not that in our minds everything that we had was about making Israel looking better in the eyes of the world okay and somebody says I applaud you for portraying Sharon as the most elegant accomplished sensual sophisticated woman on the show was this based on a real story or person by the way she's great I mean Leticia either the woman who plays the dr. shirin she's amazing she doesn't speak award in Arabic she doesn't know award in Arabic and she learned everything by heart in order to to speak in fluent Arabic Leora this would be one for you what was the hardest scene to film love the show thank you for making it Mariela the hardest scene we don't want to have to do any spoilers but I think that episode 11 yes there was a scene in episode 11 that was very hard for me to to participate in it was like very emotional for me and but I don't want to spoil her but I killed avi in the barbershop [Applause] that was a spoiler really come on and then people want to know how much she smoked purpose I think we covered that I think we covered this do you know palestinian-israeli couples and how are they accepted you have talked about the beautiful teacher so I think that that's pretty much we've covered the audience questions my classroom Yallah thank you thank you

Channel: The 92nd Street Y, New York

Views: 215,668

Keywords: 92Y, 92nd Street Y, fauda, avi issacharoff, lior raz, tatiana siegel, netflix, israeli, israel, palestine, west bank, IDF, israel defense force

Id: jLanPny0p0s

Length: 57min 15sec (3435 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 14 2019