New territory

In departure, season 3 of ‘Fauda’ takes place in Gaza

Expect several new characters and a shifting structure to the Israeli Netflix drama, says co-creator Avi Issacharoff

Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center

פאודה 3

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Posted by ‎פאודה‎ on Monday, March 18, 2019

The third season of “Fauda” recently began filming and it’s going to feel different from previous seasons, said co-creator Avi Issacharoff.

For starters, it will take place in the Gaza Strip, away from the West Bank, the primary location of the show’s last two seasons.

“What we’re trying to do is more or less to keep the sense of ‘Fauda’… but to do it in a different way, to change something, not to continue with the same characters, to break the rhythm a little,” he said.

Issacharoff wouldn’t divulge any real details about the third season of his hit show, which chronicles the adventures of an undercover Israeli commando team that immerses itself in the heart of Palestinian society.

It takes place in Gaza, which is divulged in the brief trailer released by its producer, satellite channel YES, but that’s all Issacharoff would say.

He did mention that there would be surprises, a new structure and new characters, particularly on the Palestinian side.

Lior Raz (left) and actor Ala Dakka (Courtesy ‘Fauda’)

Actor Ala Dakka, recently on “Muna,” is one of the new Palestinian characters, as is Khalifa Natour, “an amazing, amazing, amazing actor,” said Issacharoff. “People will go crazy for him.”

What remains the same is a drama that reflects reality in this corner of the Middle East, but with a fleshed out storyline that Issacharoff’s journalism didn’t allow.

“Drama allows you to give something that journalism is less able to do,” he said.  “You can’t go into the characters and their lives or understand their decision making, figuring out what changed their minds, what kind of relationship they have with their wife or kids or mother or father that made them. “That’s why it’s so great to do both, it’s so great to dive into characters and an undercover soldier and the son of a terrorist at the same time.”

Issacharoff is currently in Los Angeles, working on his next show, Netflix’s “Hit and Run.”

The new show, also written with Lior Raz, as well as Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin, is about a happily married man whose life is turned upside down when his wife is killed in a mysterious car accident.

Two-thirds of the show were shot in the US and one-third in Israel, and it’s about Israel and the US, said Issacharoff.

“It’s a different show, it’s not ‘Fauda,'” he said.

Issacharoff’s co-creator, actor Lior Raz, is also engaged in some other projects, including a recent commercial for supermarket chain Shufersal, which pokes fun at the Passover cleaning process using familiar “Fauda” techniques.

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