Israeli series, 'False Flag', to be remade by Apple TV

Both of the two seasons that have already aired in Israel of False Flag and the upcoming third season are based on true incidents that were widely reported in the news.

By HANNAH BROWN
Passports of Europeans used in the assassination of a Hamas official, from False Flags (photo credit: KESHET 12)
Passports of Europeans used in the assassination of a Hamas official, from False Flags
(photo credit: KESHET 12)
The gripping, torn-from-the-headlines Israeli series, False Flag (in Hebrew, Kfulim), will be remade by Apple TV, according to a report from Deadline.
The site said that Apple TV will present this adaptation on its streaming service. False Flag is a prize-winning Hebrew-language TV series created by Amit Cohen and Maria Feldman, and produced by Keshet International.
Its two seasons to date have already aired in Israel, and the upcoming third season is based on true incidents widely reported in the news. Each season is a stand-alone drama, with only a few characters appearing in all seasons.
The first season of False Flag, which first aired in 2015 on Israel’s Channel 2, was inspired by the 2010 assassination of a Hamas official in Dubai, in which the killers took on European identities with no apparent connection to the incident. Images of the passports of these Europeans were broadcast on news media all over the world.
In False Flag, five Israelis from very different backgrounds wake up to discover their faces all over the news and struggle to prove that they had no connection to the killing. But are they all really as innocent as they claim? And can those who are truly innocent trust the Mossad to protect them? That’s the premise of season one.
That first season won the Grand Prize at Series Mania, aired on Hulu in the US and on Fox International Channels in many countries. A Russian adaptation is already in the works.
The second season of the show, which aired on Channel 2 and the Mako website, is a thriller about three people accused of participating in a terrorist attack. A detonation of explosives at the dedication of a joint Turkish-Israeli oil venture kills several people and wounds a female government minister – who is clearly modeled after Culture Minister Miri Regev – and accusations against these seemingly model citizens affect their friends and families.
The stars playing the three accused – Moran Rosenblatt, who played a formerly ultra-Orthodox woman who is a lesbian and works for the oil company; Yousef “Joe” Sweid, who played a hi-tech worker; and Neta Riskin, who played a supposedly ordinary mom working as a tour guide – attended a sold-out screening of the opening episodes at the Berlin International Film Festival last February. Feldman, series writer Leora Kamenetzky and director Oded Ruskin also attended.