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Airdate: Prisoners of War

SBS screens the ten part Israeli series which was the forerunner to Homeland.

2012-12-27_2339Next month SBS screens Prisoners of War, the ten part Israeli series which was the forerunner to Homeland.

When three Israeli soldiers are captured during active service behind enemy lines in Lebanon, their fate is unknown. That is until 17 years later, when they mysteriously return home – two of them alive, the third in a coffin. As the two soldiers attempt to reintegrate into society, and try to cope with the pressures of being reintroduced to their families and friends, the story of their time in captivity unfolds.

Winner of nine Israeli Academy of Film and Television Awards, this compelling series navigates from delicate political themes to poignant domestic drama, under the direction of acclaimed writer Gideon Raff.

Episode One: Homecoming
After 17 years in captivity in Lebanon, three Israeli soldiers are released. Nimrode Klein, Uri Zach and Amiel Ben-Chorin are coming home. Nimrode and Uri alive, but Amiel was killed while in detention. The two survivors are reunited with their families, but struggle to cope with memories of their time as hostages, as well as adjusting to life in the civilian world. Meanwhile, their relatives try to cope with having the men back in their lives – while a government official suspects they are hiding sinister secrets.

Saturday, 19 January at 8.30pm on SBS ONE.

7 Responses

  1. From what I have read there is a lot of difference between the two series. Prisoners of War is about the politics of the Israeli-Palestine conflict and its effects.

    Homeland is a 24isation of the idea based around get the terrorist centred on the characters of Broady and Carrie. To point where you wonder why they bought the rights to the Israeli series at all.

    Homeland worked well for S1 like that but S2 was mostly just padding until the climax which set up S3. But still full of holes like how did Carrie and Broady escape from CIA headquarters after a bomb blast without been noticed!

  2. @J Bar – having watched a bit of Israeli TV and cinema, I certainly agree about the tendency for grittiness and lack of Hollywood schmaltz. However, that’s not the same as saying that Mandy Patinkin, or his character in Homeland, is a plastic stereotype.

  3. @J Bar – “…plastic Hollywood stereotypes.”

    I think that’s a pretty unfair assessment of Damien Lewis, Morena Baccarin, and esp Mandy Patinkin. Not really accurate for Claire Danes either altho’ her eyes prob deserve their own credit.

  4. Def looking fwd to seeing this. Unlike most US shows, every ep was written and directed by the same person, so the series should be less variable in tone and quality than Homeland was (esp S2).

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