Series / Fauda

Taofik Hamed "Abu Ahmad" aka The Panther (Left) and Doron Kavillio.

"[Fauda is] more than a television event, Fauda is also a political event. It’s much more than a successful action drama: It is authentic, honest, and painful."

—The comments of an unnamed critic in Yehidot Ahronot on May 4, 2015.

Fauda (Which means Chaos in Arabic) is a 2015 Israeli television series that debuted on the channel Yes Oh. It stars Lior Raz and Hisham Suliman as the main stars with development by Raz and journalist Avi Issacharoff. It previously aired a total of 12 episodes. It's based on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and deconstructs things that happen there from the Israelis and Palestinians who get involved in terrorist and anti-terrorist situations. The show centers on an Israeli Army Mista'arvim unit trying to stop the activities of a HAMAS cell led by someone known as "The Panther".

Doron Kavillio, a once famed Mista'arvim operator in the Israeli Army, has settled down to be involved with his family after he was discharged. But his normal life changes after some of his ex-Mista'arvim colleagues informed him that a known HAMAS terrorist named "Abu Ahmad" may still be alive and in hiding, despite being confirmed to be killed in action by the Israeli military. Not knowing any other way to resolve this dilemma, Doron agrees to get back on the action and see if he's alive or whether it's just a rumor.

As Doron and the unit continue to investigate HAMAS' activities, the group is in the middle of enacting plans to perform a large-scale terror attack in Israel...

In November 2016, it was picked up by Netflix as a Netflix Original Series (even though it technically isn't one), the first Israeli TV show to get the label.

Fauda has so far aired four seasons; the fourth season though was released worldwide by January 2023 under Netflix.

India announced that it'll see an Indian remake, centering on historical tensions between India and Pakistan. Tanaav aired on November 11, 2022.

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The TV show provides examples of:

• Amicably Divorced: Doron and Gali in Season 2 (by season 3, you can scratch the "amicably").
• Arc Words: "Abu Ahmed met" — Abu Ahmed is dead. Usually uttered by characters who are well aware of what the truth is.
• Avenging the Villain: This is Al Makdasi's motivation to target Doron in Season 2. He's the son of Shiekh Awdaullah, the Hamas commander who Doron killed during a failed prisoner exchange in Season 1.
• Bastard Understudy: Walid kills Abu Ahmad while he is watching a video that shows the real man behind the cover identity that Doron had assumed.
• Becoming the Mask: At one point in Season 2, Doron admits to Shirin how he feels more at ease in his cover identity in Palestinian territory, than he does as himself at home.
  • Happens to Doron again in Season 3. He spent 6 months in a West Bank village, undercover as the boxing coach of Bashar, the cousin of a Hamas operative that the unit is targeting. During this time, he develops an almost paternal bond with the boy. This ends up having disastrous consequences for everyone concerned, and actually sets into motion the events of the season.
  • It's a running theme for Doron, as a sort-of inverse case of this already happens near the end of Season 1, when he poses as a prospective suicide bomber to get close to Abu Ahmad. When asked why he is right for the mission, why he does not fear death, he replies that he lost his family, who don't know him anymore, that he is a stranger in his own home and feels like a man adrift. This is part of his fictional backstory in the guise of the suicide bomber, and at the same time, none of that is a lie.
• Break the Cutie: Two major cases of this:
  • Shirin, who is easily the most sympathetic character in all three seasons, on both sides of the conflict. She is genuinely non-political and clearly expresses several times to Walid that she does not want to get involved in the conflict. She is obviously devoted to her job, and only very reluctantly performs the surgery on a captive Boaz, being forced to by Hamas; and she is shown to be in great distress afterwards, and worried about her patient. She is then exploited as a source by Doron, even if he does develop real feelings for her in the course of Season 1, forced to marry Walid in Season 2, is again approached by Doron and reluctantly recruited for the Israeli side. She seems to catch a break when, after Walid is arrested, she stays at Doron's place, or rather his father's place, where they finally open up to each other and form their romantic bond. Just before being brought out of the country to Europe, to leave the conflict behind, Doron's father is murdered by Al-Makdasi, and Doron, in a fit of rage, accuses Shirin of being an informer who led the terrorists to the farm. She is thrown into an Israeli jail, and, as part of psychological pressure, confronted with her ex-husband Walid, who utterly snaps and promises her death as a disgraced traitor. Ayub does realize that she knows nothing and sends her back to a safehouse, but at that point, she has already lost everything, and had her heart broken by Doron for the second time, basically. When the latter realizes that he wrongly accused her, and drives to the safehouse to apologize, he finds Shirin having committed suicide in easily one of the most heartwrenching moments of the series. This is the one woman who literally did nothing wrong, getting involved in the conflict in one single, indirect action, and only due to Hamas' pressure, and she was played and abused by both sides as a result.
  • Bashar, who at the beginning in Season 3 is an apolitical kid, an aspiring boxer, who adores his coach Abu Fadi. The problem is that said coach is Doron in disguise, which, as usual when he gets involved, leads to events spiraling out of control, as detailed in Create Your Own Villain below, overlapping with that trope and a dose of From Nobody to Nightmare.
• Create Your Own Villain: In Season 3, Bashar is a textbook example of this trope. He was an ordinary kid, an aspiring boxer, who had no interest in getting involved in the Palestine cause. But because his cousin, Fauzi, is the right-hand man to Hamas commander Abu Mohammad, he ends up getting dragged into the conflict when Doron goes undercover as his boxing coach. This sets into motion a disastrous chain of events that culminates in him becoming a dreaded Hamas terrorist, who kidnaps an innocent Israeli girl and, by the end of the season, is desperate to seek revenge against Doron and the Israeli forces for ruining his life.
• Cycle of Revenge: Part of the show's attempt to deconstruct the conflict. In-universe, the Mista'arvim's actions in Palestinian areas does nothing to stop HAMAS from conducting terror acts, and instead attracts Palestinians who are willing to fight on their behalf.
  • Applies on a more personal level as well. Characters on both sides take a number of actions in retaliation for losses inflicted on them by the other side. Most notably, in Season 1, Boaz kills Abu Ahmed's brother. As a result, Abu Ahmed orders Walid to kill a captive Boaz. This prompts Doron to kill his own captive prisoner, Hamas leader Sheikh Awadullah. As a result, in Season 2, the Sheikh's son, Al Makdasi, seeks revenge against Doron by executing Doron's father, Amos. This culminates in Doron inadvertently causing the death of Al Makdasi's brother Samir, and eventually killing Al Makdasi himself.
• Dark Secret: Gideon Avital, the Defense Minister (which Moreno uses to blackmail him into not firing him after the whole debacle with Doron going rogue and Boaz and Shiekh Awadalla being blown to bits in a prisoner exchange to save the former).
• Deadly Gas: What the HAMAS courier Abu Halil smuggled in from either Jordan or Syria for Abu Ahmad to use in the large-scale al-Buraq attack: Sarin!
• Deconstruction: What the show is meant to do. In fact, it resonated with Israelis, Israeli-Arabs, and Palestinians that many left comments (both good and bad) on Raz's Facebook page on their thoughts on how the show has affected their view on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: In episode 7, Walid detonates the bomb implanted in Boaz during the Prisoner Exchange, killing him. In retaliation, Doron kills Sheikh Awdalla by triggering the suicide vest he's wearing. In the Indian remake Tanaav, this scenario plays out slightly differently - a traumatised Danish (Boaz) grabs hold of Mir (Awdalla) during the exchange, which causes Junaid (Walid)to trigger the bomb implanted in Danish, killing both him and Mir. Thus Kabir (Doron) is not technically responsible for Mir's death.
• Downer Ending: Season 3: The unit succeeds in rescuing Yaara, the Israeli girl that Bashar and his father kidnapped, but Avihai dies in the process. The unit members, and Doron in particular, are clearly traumatized by what happened and will probably never be the same again. Bashar's family has been destroyed, with his father dead and his mother facing a life sentence in an Israeli prison. And Bashar crosses the Moral Event Horizon by killing Yaara, just to torment Doron for the rest of his life, thus rendering their mission, and Avihai's sacrifice, All for Nothing. The worst part is the realization on everyone's part, particularly Doron's, that they are basically responsible for all of this, by manipulating Bashar into helping them during their initial undercover op against his cousin.
• Driven to Suicide: Shirin, towards the end of Season 2.
• Elites Are More Glamorous: The unnamed Mista'arvim unit led by Doron throughout the show.
• Enemy Civil War: In both seasons, the Big Bad eventually went rogue from the Hamas and did their own thing.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The show has a significant focus on the families of the Palestinian terrorists and how their lives are affected by the actions of their brother/son/husband. The death of a family member motivates a terrorist's actions on more than one occasion. Abu Ahmed launches retaliatory attacks on Israel after the unit kills his brother. The primary motivation of Season 2's Big Bad, Al Makdasi, is avenging the death of his father.
• Faking the Dead: Abu Ahmed, after Doron's attempted assassination of him 18 months before the series begins. Israeli intelligence discovering this is what kicks off the plot.
• Foreign Remake: Tanaav, the Indian remake of the show, is set in the Kashmir Valley, long a site of contention between India and Pakistan. The Israeli unit is reimagined as a Special Task Group of the Indian Army, with the Hamas' role from the original being played by Kashmiri separatists.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: A realistic and downplayed version of the trope, but a clear example nonetheless, for Bashar.
• Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: Doron with Shirin after he came back from his botched prisoner exchage.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: When Nasrin goes to the hospital to see her daughter Abir (who got an eye injury from the Shiekh Awadalla being blown up during an prisoner exchange with her as the other prisoner), Gabi arranges for a checkpoint soldier to harras her with a strip-search and him seemingly coming to her rescue, apologizing and so on.
• Greater-Scope Villain: ISIS serves as this in Season 2. While the Big Bad Al Makdasi's actions are largely motivated by his personal vendetta against Doron, his plans are ultimately based on orders from his handlers to establish an ISIS presence in Palestine.
• He Who Fights Monsters: A major part of the subtext of the show. It is constantly demonstrated how the Israeli soldiers, in the process of fighting Palestinian terrorists, have arguably ended up becoming as ruthless and brutal as their targets. This applies to Doron in particular.
  • It applies to all the mista'arvim, really. Even Naor, who quits the team in Season 2 due to his issues with Doron, both personal and professional ones, and who comes across as one of the least violent and most collected team members in Season 1, later calmly shoots an unarmed Walid in the head without blinking an eye, moments after Doron tells Walid that the latter's lucky that he promised Shirin not to kill him. Well, he doesn't.. Nurit, who was the one team member clearly distressed at the treatment of Sheikh Awadallah, also does not bat an eye in this scene. She was previously warned that being seen as soft would put her colleagues at risk.
• Honey Trap: Doron's flirtation with Shirin. Especially notable when he pretends to add her number to his phone to bug hers.
• Informed Ability: It's stated a few times by Shin Bet and IDF characters that the team is one of the best, if not the best of all mista'arvim units, which are part of the near-legendary IDF special forces anyway. Considering these credentials, it's certainly remarkable that not a single mission in which they are involved goes entirely according toplan without at least one serious screw-up in terms of operational details, and that every single mission actually manages to make things worse in the greater scale of the conflict. Then again, the series is named after the Arabic word for chaos, and that is almost certainly also part of the intended Deconstruction.
  • Truth in Television. Military operations rarely go according to plan, even when successful, as there are always unknown variables or unexpected events that can't be avoided. More-so with covert operations, where anything can expose a team's cover.
• Kissing Cousins: Walid tries to be this with Shirin, even going to the extent of proposing to her. In Season 2, it was revealed that he indeed married her between the first and second season.
• Klingon Promotion: Walid, with cooperation from Hamas commander Abu Samara, executes his superior Abu Ahmed at the end of Season 1. As a result, he ends up taking Abu Ahmed's place.
• Married to the Job: For most of the Mista'arvim, it's more important to dedicate their time to the unit than to think of their own families. Deconstructed severely in the 7th episode when the unit agrees to kidnap a Palestinian sheikh to save one of their own. Nurit doesn't like the idea of doing it because she's not sure if it's worth it, even if it starts to break her personal morals.
  • Its also the reason why Doron's wife Gali falls out of love with him, and eventually ends up cheating on him. According to her, he became too focused on the job and started to neglect his family.
• Mandatory Unretirement: Doron finds himself compelled to return to the unit at the start of Season 1 to take down Abu Ahmed. Granted, once he's back, it doesn't take him long to overcome any inhibitions he might have had about returning.
• Middle Eastern Terrorists: The presence of HAMAS is felt in the show thanks to the reputation of Abu Ahmed.
  • Season 2 also includes the presence of ISIS.
• Nipple and Dimed: For a second or two when Shirin and Doron are shown in bed after their shag.
• Non-Fatal Explosions: When Boaz and Shiekh Awadalla get blown up by explosives planted in resp. on their bodies (into a million pieces), those standing next to them (only a few meters away) are just knocked around a little (only Abu Ahmad's daughter Abir, who Doron took hostage, gets an injury more severe than a few scratches, and even she gets off lightly, considering that she was only a few meters away from the explosion).
• Open Heart Dentistry: Shirin is forced to operate on Boaz (implanting a bomb) under harsh conditions despite not being a surgeon.
• Prisoner Exchange: An attempt at one is depicted in the middle of Season 1. It doesn't go well and results in the death of two of three prisoners.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Moreno, the head of the unit, is one for the most part, as is Captain Gabi Ayub of the Secret Service. On the Palestinian side, Hamas leaders Shiekh Awdaullah and Abu Samara probably count, as does Palestinian Preventive Security head Abu Maher.
• Retired Badass: Doron's father, Amos Kabillo. It is strongly implied that he, like his son, was once an undercover operative.
  • Doron himself technically counts. He'd retired from the unit prior to the events of the series, and only rejoins the team to take down Abu Ahmed in Season 1 and because he and his family were targeted by Al Makdasi in Season 2.
• Retirony: Moreno was on the verge of retiring from the unit and letting Naor take his place as commander before his sudden death at the start of Season 2.
• Rogue Soldier: Doron and some of the team members go rogue in the middle of the first season to save Boaz before HAMAS can execute him. The Israeli Defense Minister is not pleased by this move.
• Running Gag: Captain Ayub constantly being interrupted by phone calls from his kids while at work.
• Shout-Out: When Eli was in the hospital after the botched mission that kicked off the plot of season 1, he claimed to the nurse that his secret identity was Spider-Man and complained to Doron about the nurse not believing him.
• Shown Their Work: How the Mista'arvim works. It helps that Raz actually did serve with one during his time with the Israeli Army and used his knowledge to make their portrayal very accurate.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Moreno, Walid, and Shirin are all prominent Season 1 characters who die over the course of Season 2. In Moreno's case, his death comes as early as the Season 2 premiere.
  • During the course of Season 3, Abu Maher and Avihai are killed.
• Suicide Attack/Why Am I Ticking?: Seeing as it's about the Arab-Israeli conflict, there are a few examples:
  • Amal, the wife of Bashir (who got shot right before her eyes when an abduction/assassination attempt against the actually not dead Abu Ahmad went chaotic on their wedding), was supposed to drop off a bomb in an Israeli disco and leave the scene (she had three minutes), but due to her being extremely depressed about her husband's death, she stayed and committed a murder-suicide that way.
  • Boaz gets implanted with a bomb by Shirin at the behest of Abu Ahmad to assassinate the Israeli minister of defense, Gideon Avital.
  • After Doron and his squad mates went rogue, they put explosive vests on their prisoners Shiekh Awadalla and Abu Ahmad's daughter Abir during the prisoner exchange. After Walid blows up Boaz at Abu Ahmad's command, Doron blows up Awadalla as revenge.
  • In season 3, Nasser tries to kill Doron for killing his son Fauza and to clear the name of his brother Jihad and his son Basher, who unwittlingly led Doron to Fauza, using a suicide vest, but Doron was able to wrestle the trigger out of Nasser's hand and give Sagi the time to shoot him.
• Sweet Tooth: Abu Ahmad loves candy, e.g. the first thing he asked for after he woke up from an operation in episode #2 was something sweet (even though the doctor said he shouldn't eat anything right after the operation) and he was often shown to munch on chocolate and other candies ever since.
• The Bus Came Back: In Season 2, Eli, the unit member who was last seen in the second episode of Season 1, returns to take command of the unit.
• Title Drop: The word "Fauda", which is Arabic for 'chaos', is used frequently throughout the series in conversations. Most notably, in the first episode, it's used as a codeword by the unit to indicate an operation spiralling out of control.
• Villainous Rescue: In the Season 2 finale, Hamas leader Abu Samara and his men end up saving Doron's life by storming Al Makdasi's hideout just before the latter was about to execute Doron.
• Walking Wasteland: Figuratively, that is. In what may count as a non-fantasy version of the trope, Doron is this, as he himself admits during his breakdown in Season 2. Almost everyone he comes close to in the series, whether as a friend, lover or enemy, ends up dead, and nearly every operation he's involved in goes wrong at some point.
• Wham Episode:
  • The 3rd episode shows the Palestinian widow not leaving a nightclub in downtown Tel Aviv after she leaves a bomb inside. Instead, she stays behind to die as a martyr.
  • The 5th episode ends with Boaz being captured by the Hamas, which in the 6th episode results in Doron and most of the team going rogue to launch an unsanctioned operation to rescue him. This culminates in the 7th episode, in which Boaz is killed during an attempted prisoner exchange.
  • The Season 1 finale ends with Walid, Abu Ahmed's aide, protégé, and closest companion throughout the story, shooting him in the end.
  • The Season 2 premiere ends with Moreno being killed after a failed attempt to capture Al Makdasi.
  • Season 2, Episode 6 begins with Walid being captured by the unit, with help from Shirin.
  • Season 2, Episode 8 ends with Al Makdasi slashing the throat of Doron's father, Amos Kabillo.
  • Season 2, Episode 9 ends with Shirin having hanged herself, with Doron desperately trying to save her.
• Worst Wedding Ever: The first season opens with Doron's squad attempting to assassinate Abu Ahmed at his son's wedding. It goes about as badly as it possibly could have; Abu Ahmed isn't even there, and his son (the groom) attacks them, leading to him and several others being shot dead. And that's just the immediate event; the aftermath and second-order effects of the wedding lead to the widowed bride carrying out a suicide attack, which kills Boaz' girlfriend, which plunges Boaz into despair, which leads to his capture and eventual killing by Hamas, which in turn leads to the team kidnapping and eventually killing Sheikh Awadallah, which again leads to a vendetta of the Sheikh's son against Doron in Season 2.... The wedding fiasco directly or indirectly kicks off half of the events in Season 1, those not directly connected to the Panther, and also, by means of Boaz and the Sheikh, indirectly sets up the entirety of Season 2.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Very much in effect on the Palestinian side, as it is in real life.