Fauda - Chaotic Israeli/Palestinian Struggle as TV Series - Review

If you like "Homeland" (whose original concept, "Hatufim" was Israeli too) you will love the Israeli TV-series "Fauda," a political thriller depicting the Israeli/Palestinian struggle as a microcosmos. The lauded TV series, which originally aired on Israeli provider, Yes in spring of 2015 and later was awarded the equivalent of an Emmy, premiered on December, 2 on streaming service Netflix. It's not for the faint of heart and the US rating of MA (mature audience) is well deserved, some of the violence is too close to reality. But you also will be binge watching, as this compelling series will draw you in, no matter, what side you are on.

Fauda means chaos in Arabic, and chaos it is: not only between the underground Israeli security forces on one side and Hamas terrorists on the other, but also showing the toll of the struggles among families involved. weddings become funerals, relationships end in disassociation and imbalance, political and security goals are branded by infighting and corruptness. And yes, that happenes on both sides of the dividing wall between Israel and Palestine.

The series follows an undercover unit, also known as Mista'arvim (meaning 'those living among the Arabs'), a tight-knit unit, whose members of the Israeli army are trained in the language and mannerisms of Palestinians, down to being able to immitate Muslim church attendance and prayer, in order to accomplish their counter terrorism agenda.  All we know is that presumed dead Hamas terrorist Tafiq Hamed Abu Ahmad aka The Panther (Hisham Suliman) is alive and plans a big, 9/11 size onslaught on Israel. Commander Doron Kavillio (Lior Raz) comes out of retirement trying to foil the attack and to take The Panther out. But first we meet the two lead characters among their regular families, as fathers and husbands, as a brother, a brother-in-law and we soon start to realize that the chaos of the struggle also reflects into chaos for being human beings and losing your empathy.

****/***** (4/5)


Intelligently written by Avi Issacharoff and lead actor Raz the 12-episode drama actually gives equal screen time to both sides of the conflict, their families, their complex backstories and obviously a reality, filled to deep with hate and indifference. The strict use of native tongues, Arabic and Hebrew (with subtitles) also helps the audience to find empathy with either side. But in the end, the hunters become the hunted, the hunted turn into the hunters; no one is innocent and that is where the strength of the Assaf Bernstein directed tragedy is. And a tragedy it is, nobody wins, humankind loses.

Roughly 20 years ago, Raz came up with the idea of "Fauda" when he served his mandatory term in a special unit of the Israeli military. Joined by Issacharoff, who himself served in the Westbank, it took the two, with some external writers almost four years to create the script for reality driven "Fauda." The creators Avi Issacharoff and Lior Raz discussing their view of things on Israeli TV news channel i24news.



A second season is already in production and Netflix already agreed to pick it up. Avi Issacharoff told the "Times of Israel," for whom he also writes as a military analyst and middle east expert, that current happenings will be Incorporated into the script:
“The news affects what you write. You can’t ignore reality and you’ll see part of that new reality in the show. If the first season was about Hamas and the territories, this will be something newer and more relevant.”

Compelling TV at its best. Can hardly wait for season 2.


Sources: Netflix, YouTube, i24news, Times of Israel

Les Femmes du 6ème étage - (The Women on the 6th Floor)

Set in 1962 in Paris, this French/Spanish movie by writer (with Jérôme Tonnerre)/director Philippe Le Guay is a lighthearted comedy-romance, with some subtle social economic undertones. On one side there is Jean-Louis Joubert (greatly played by Fabrice Luchini) and his neurotic wife, Suzanne (Sandrine Kiberlain), members of the upscale Bourgeoisie, with two sons that are away in boarding school. After their old maid quits/gets fired, Maria Gonzalez (Natalia Verbeke) gets hired. With her sheer presence and pride, she starts unraveling the social order in this huge apartment complex in Paris.



All the laborers (maids) live in small garrets (mansards) under the roof (on the 6th floor) of the building in less than acceptable conditions. Monsieur Joubert, who has lived in this building all his life, as his parents and grandparents have, suddenly starts to realize the "joie de vivre" of all the Spanish domestics who keep the "dead society" on the floors below them, tidy and organized. Even with the social undertones, the movie is funny, light, easy digestible even with the subtitles, in case you don't speak French and/or Spanish.

It's not a must see, but you may spend the 104 minutes worse. I'll give it ★★★(★)  out of ☆☆☆☆☆ stars.

RIP Bill McKinney - The Mountain Man has died

He was known for playing crazy villains in several movies, including seven with Clint Eastwood. But Bill McKinney will always be remembered as the Georgia hillbilly who made Ned Beatty “squeal like a pig” in the John Boorman movie "Deliverance."

McKinney’s Facebook page announced his death with a note that he had suffered from esophageal cancer. Bill McKinney was 80 years old.
Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee (9/12/31) he had a rather unsteady childhood, as he moved with his parents 12 times before joining the Navy when he was 19 during the Korean War. As he told Maxim (see below) he was once thrown into a creek in Georgia, just for being from Tennessee.

During his 4 year tenure in the Navy, part of it on a mine sweeper in Korean waters, he decided to become an actor, if he would survive the war. Supporting himself as an arborist, he attended acting school at the famous Pasadena Playhouse with class mate Dustin Hoffman. After a stint at another famous acting school, the Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio, he made his debut in the B-movie "She Freak" (1967). Staring in TV series like "The Monkees," "I Dream of Jeannie" or as Lobo in "Alias Smith and Jones" kept him busy, but it wasn't until 1972, where he got the attention as a horrendous villain, when he became the Mountain Man in "Deliverance."


Although only credited as the “Mountain Man,” the rape scene with it's legendary saying "Squeal like a pig" cemented the film and McKinney's legacy. Co-star Burt Reynolds later wrote in his autobiography that McKinney was a bit nuts, and probably would have raped Ned Beatty for real. McKinney denied that in his Maxim article, but it seems he did enjoy his infamous minutes of movie history; his official website even carried the web-address www.squeallikeapig.com - (Update 1/13/2013 - website doesn't exist anymore.).

Film critic Leonard Maltin described McKinney in his review of the movie "Deliverance" as, "one of the most terrifying film villains in history." And yes, even more than thirty years later, man magazine Maxim named the two mountain man (the other being Herbert "Cowboy" Coward) as the top movie villains of all time. "Maxim Goes to the Movies."

Other notable directors got interested in McKinney and he normally became the villain or the outlaw - often in westerns - like John Huston's "The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean," Sam Peckinpah's "Junior Bonner," or John Wayne's last film "The Shootist."

McKinney as Dallas in "Any Which Way You Can"

In 1974 he was cast as the "crazy driver" in Michael Cimino's "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot" along side Clint Eastwood. The collaboration got him into Eastwood's stock company and McKinney would star in seven Eastwood films, most notably as Lefty Lebow in "Bronco Billy" and as Captain "Red Legs" Terrill in "The Outlaw: Josey Wales" upto 1989 "Pink Cadillac" after which Eastwood closed the Malpaso Company.

 Terrill in "The Outlaw Josey Wales"



Other notable roles included the shadowy killer, simply credited as the Parallax Assassin in Alan J. Pakula's "The Parrallax View," a State Police Captain in Sylvester Stallone's Rambo in "First Blood," a train engineer in "Back To The Future III," the head coach in "Against All Odds" and as executioner Jack Van Hay in "The Green Mile."



McKinney could also seen in many TV shows, like "Starsky And Hutch," "B.J. And The Bear," "Bret Maverick," "The Yellow Rose," "The Fall Guy," "The A-Team," "Houston Knights," "Baywatch" and "Walker, Texas Ranger" just to name a few.
In the late '90s, McKinney also started singing (his self-released pop/country album "Love Songs From [sic] Antri" could be found and purchased on his website. (2013 - non existent anymore)

Aintry, Georgia was the fictional town, where the river trip in "Deliverance" ended; McKinney also had a great sense of humor, on his facebook page, he listed his personal interests as quote "river boat trips near Antry, Georgia, Meeting new folks from out of town, hunting (rifle, no crossbows please)"; he was killed by a bow shot by Burt Reynolds in "Deliverance." The Facebook note about his death also mentioned that he just completed a Dorito's commercial two weeks before his death, that he left behind "several ex-wives" and that he had a finished autobiography looking for publishers.