Fauda (chaos)

This is a Netflix production featuring an operative unit of Israelis who conduct hit operations in Gaza. It’s obviously a hit as in its third series.  Series like The Spiral in its 7th series show that team movies are popular.

These have been the subject of successful films like The Magnificent Seven, The Great  Escape and The Dirty Dozen but the modern adaptation has a difference, more female parts.

It’s an Israeli production but reasonably fair-minded.

Certainly the conditions which the Palestinians live are stark. There is tit-for-tat violence. The unit takes out a husband, the brother of a leading Jihadist killer Abu Ahman (they are referred to Shahids – Martyrs), at his own wedding celebration and Hamas responds by blowing up a Tel Aviv pub where one of the unit – Boaz – dates the girl behind the bar.

Essentially the unit is chasing Abu all over Ramallah. The Israelis have the edge in reconnaissance. Their unit called 8200 is said to be the most advanced in the world.

Hamas working in a place with total support has the advantage of  locality. Conflict emerges though between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.  The

Hamas supporters  always refer to their enemies not as Israelis but Jews.

The acting is sometimes uneven, the events melodramatic but it’s tense high-octane stuff. It has the attraction of series like The Killing that once you have finished one episode you crave for the next.

Watch it. You have nothing else to do.