New Delhi: Israeli action-thriller series Fauda is finding an audience across the Middle East, including in several Arab countries. Released globally on Netflix on September 8, its fifth season focuses heavily on the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 attack.
The series topped Netflix’s charts in Lebanon, which was directly affected by the conflict as it became part of the war a day after the October 7 attack. It also entered the Top 10 in several other Arab countries. In Jordan, the show ranked number two, while it ranked number three in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates and number eight in Saudi Arabia.
A season rewritten after October 7
The fifth season premiered in Israel in May and has 11 episodes. The season was substantially rewritten after the October 7 attack, with creators Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff deciding that the series could not ignore an event that had transformed Israel and the region.
Set two years after the incident, the season deals with the trauma and shock of the attack. Raz shared that the show was not made ‘to change the opinion of anyone’ but as a form of ‘therapy’ for the creator to process what happened on October 7.
“We wanted to tell something that really burned in us,” Raz said.
He has also said that viewers from across the region have contacted him about the show, including people who may not agree with its Israeli perspective. However, the series has helped them understand how Israelis were experiencing the events.
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The show’s own real-life losses
Several creatives associated with Fauda were also affected by the conflict.
Matan Meir, a longtime crew member on the series, was killed in November 2023 in a blast in Gaza. The first episode of the fifth season was dedicated to him.
Actor Dian American, who appeared in seasons two, three, and four and was slated to return for the fifth season, was seriously injured in an explosion while serving in the Combat Engineering Corps reserves in January 2024.
The show was filmed in southern Israel and Budapest.
Edited by Maryam Hassan