An excerpt from "East Side" starring Yehuda Levy (here 11)
Ten cabins of conflict came down to the world, Jerusalem took nine and a half and did a favor by leaving something for others.
It's a cliché, right, but it seems like it really is.
Within one city, each and every group - Jews and Arabs, right and left, ultra-Orthodox, religious and secular, rich and poor, men and women, of various religions and denominations, and people of all kinds - collide with it at an unimaginable speed, as in a kind of urban particle accelerator.
Its ancient stones, bloody history and sacred sites only make everything more charged and fiery.
Quite a few television personalities recognized the potential, and in recent years the capital of Israel has been the setting for a host of thrillers, from masterpieces such as "The Boys" to weak police series such as "Jerusalem".
This group is now joined by another series with a somewhat casual name - Kan 11's "East Side", behind which stand the creators Yael Rubinstein-Nitzan (writers of "Sergios") and Yossi Madmoni ("Matir Agunot", among others), and the director Yevgeni Roman ("Mangan and minister").
In this series as well, as expected, the national and the personal get mixed up, borders are crossed, corruption erupts and danger to life hovers over everyone.
If you have the feeling that you've seen it before, you're not really wrong.
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playing with fire
Yehuda Levy as the hero of "East Side" (photo: courtesy of Kaan 11)
Yehuda Levy plays Momi, a former Shin Bet man who makes a living from a particularly explosive occupation: brokering real estate transactions in East Jerusalem and the Old City.
These are not innocent transactions without context: extremist groups purchase buildings with the aim of "Judaizing" the area and pushing Palestinians out of it.
These, for their part, do not really see it favorably, and those who sell their house to Jews may encounter great wrath and heavy punishment for the act.
Obviously, it's hard to say that a good neighbor is created, and that's the understatement of the century.
So how does this happen?
Through bribes, large sums of money, lies and shows, things that are said one way above the table and another way below it.
Momi, like most of the characters in the saga, is not an extreme ideologue - but an opportunist.
He serves the settlers, but takes care of the Palestinians who are on the other side of the deals.
When one of these families is in danger and has to flee, he follows her - and he's not the only one.
At the same time, he is trying to close the big deal of his life, and in his last ambition: the purchase of a hotel in the old city from the Greek Patriarchate, so that it too will eventually come into the hands of the settlers (which echoes an event that did happen: the Petra Hotel sale affair).
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On the way there he does not see with the eyes, without any moral (or political) consideration.
The reason for this, according to the series, is his concern for the future of his teenage daughter, Maya, who is on the autistic spectrum (actress Geffen Kaminer is also on the spectrum).
While Maya's mother is not in the picture, Momi functions as a devoted parent, but even in this case - the end of the route justifies all means: he pushes his daughter to start working as a waitress and enlist in the army, even though it is not certain that these frameworks suit her and it is possible that they may even harm her.
The reason for this is convoluted: success at work and in the military will prove that she is high-functioning, so she can be prioritized in an adapted village - a community that can take care of her in case something happens to him, because they have no one else but each other.
Warning signs and red lights are flashing everywhere, but Momi doesn't stop, even if it includes having an affair with her therapist (Neta Riskin) and convincing her to sign a false letter of recommendation.
Everything seems to be leading to an inevitable collision.
Judaize East Jerusalem?
Sarit Vino Elad from "East Side" (photo: courtesy of Kaan 11)
Where does it all come together?
Everyone in the series is trying to bend reality through lies and manipulation, and hope it doesn't blow up in their face.
As it were, the personal is stronger than the political: money, violence, politics - these are tools in a symbolic war, when other interests are the ones who move the tools on the board, and below that everything is open to negotiation.
But this is ultimately a somewhat superficial way of presenting a very complex reality (a very similar thesis was presented by "Jerusalem").
"East Side", at least from the two episodes that were sent to journalists, does not deal with the moral consequences of the things, does not really try to say something broader, and ultimately remains a rather poor, generic thriller that does not appeal to Palestinians and settlers.
The action is reasonable, the characters and the script too - but nothing more than that.
It's a promise you don't keep.
In me she evoked mostly indifference.
Reality is complex, the series is mired in clichés.
Shaden Canbora, from "East Side" (photo: courtesy of Kaan 11)
The inner happening around the daughter's future is the stronger side of the story.
While the scenes of Gefen Kaminer and Yehuda Levy are beautiful and sensitive, the storyline woven around them is not convincing for the time being (why would the therapist agree to sign a false letter of recommendation? Why must the restaurant and the army be involved in the plan about an imaginary admission process to a therapeutic village? Is this really the only way?).
Admittedly, interesting questions arise here about education and life on the continuum, and it is interesting to see how this direction will develop.
Levy himself, who seems to be participating in almost every series that comes out in the last two years ("Alumim", "Fire Dance", "Third Person", "Ma'aila"), does a decent but somewhat automatic job in the main role as a man who is rough on the outside but sensitive on the inside.
But like many elements in this drama, his character seems more like a cliché than a flesh-and-blood hero.
And when the thriller isn't interesting enough, and the characters aren't convincing enough, "East Side" has a hard time pulling viewers along on the way to the next cliffhanger.
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Yehuda Levi
