Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s strand in which, each fortnight, we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films landing success in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it’s ever been, but breakout hits are appearing in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track… So, we’re going to do the hard work for you.
Shady Srour is a Palestinian-Israeli auteur making his way in a difficult climate to produce hard-hitting work. Inspired by Shakespeare and other great playwrights, his mini-series Fadia deals with honor killings, that darkest of topics, while saying plenty more about society. It received a rapturous reception at the recent Monte-Carlo TV Festival, winning a trio of awards. This important work is one that the world should really see.
Name: Fadia
Country: Israel
Producers: Cinema Virgin
Distributor: Cinema Virgin
Network: Makan TV
For fans of: Macbeth
When Shady Srour first came up with the idea for Fadia, he wanted to pose that unthinkable question of why a man or woman would kill a relative in the name of honor.
Honor killings, which have been explored in hard-hitting previous work like the BBC’s Murdered by my Father, are impossible for many to even contemplate, but around the world they are a reality.
Srour, a Palestinian-Israeli filmmaker and actor living in Nazareth, felt there was plenty to explore and the result landed an international premiere at Seriencamp before wowing at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival.
“I live in a conservative society where we have honor killings and I am a man with four sisters, so I understand what is happening with women in society,” Srour tells Deadline. “I wanted to research and break down how a man or woman can kill their own relative. It is hurting me to see all these killings for honor.”
After a lengthy production and development process during which funding was hard to come by, the result was Fadia starring Yara Elham Jarrar for Israeli-Arab language network Makan TV. The show follows the titular character, left for dead by family in the name of honor but rescued by neighbors, who risk everything to ensure her continued safety. For Fadia, the struggle is far from over, and she must come to terms with the traumas imposed upon her and find her voice again. We weren’t able to attain ratings data before press time, but support for the show has been large.
Srour’s research process was extensive. He spent time reading reports and watching videos about these terrible cases but also spoke to women “with horror stories,” helped by his wife, a social worker who has worked with rape survivors. “I made a big thing of talking to people,” he adds. “When you talk you start to understand more and more.”
He initially planned to make a documentary before slowly morphing to a thriller series with depth that he felt would reach a bigger audience. Selling the show was helped by Jarrar, who “made me cry after delivering her first monologue,” Srour says.
With Fadia, he had multiple aims, all designed to give the project layers.
He wanted to shine a spotlight not just on victims of honor killings but on female victims of violence in general, as he flags research that shows the vast majority of femicides are not honor killings. Violence against women remains a scourge on society and Srour is also keen to point out that honor killings do not only happen in the Middle East, but are taking place in the U.S., UK, Germany and other nations around the world.
“My film has many layers as you have a modern family and one that is conservative,” he adds. “I feel like we the rational people are becoming the minority and the extremists are getting more powerful in many situations.”
But while spotlighting honor killings as a global problem, Srour, an Arab-Israeli whose people make up around 20% of the Israeli population, could not divorce his show from the reality of Israel since October 7.
Inspired by ‘Macbeth’
‘Fadia’. Image: Cinema Virgin
“I care about my society and my intention was to work in my society because this is what we have left,” he explains. “Living under different shapes of occupation is not easy and if you are living under such pressure or a very harsh situation it doesn’t matter if you’re inside Israel or the West Bank or Gaza. I wanted to work from a position of looking at myself, not judging myself, and trying to heal myself.”
Israeli content has always punched above its weight but rather than seek inspiration from the big hits that came before his, Srour went further back, all the way to iconic playwrights like Ibsen, Beckett and, of course, the Bard. “My inspiration was theater, and Macbeth,” he says. “When I first wrote Fadia people questioned why I had so many long monologues. I want to put a mirror in front of society and try and heal it. This is what Shakespeare and Ibsen were trying to do.”
He hasn’t got off to a bad start. Srour and his Cinema Virgin production and sales company decided to produce both a mini-series version and movie of Fadia to target festivals promoting both, which reaped rewards by winning at the Haifa International Film Festival and Monte-Carlo TV Festival, taking home five across the two events including the coveted Golden Nymph at the latter, where Srour shared a stage with Lesley Manville.
Shady Srour with Lesley Manville at Monte-Carlo
Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty
“I always wondered how the European and international audience would react,” adds Srour. “At Seriencamp, a big German man tapped me on the shoulder and said I’d made him cry and to get that recognition from both the audience and the jury gives me more of a feeling that I am on the right track.”
As a Palestinian-Israeli, Srour of course has a nuanced take on the situation around him. With funding for projects that he is passionate about up in the air, he hopes in the near future works like his can at the very least allow for a conversation.
“I was afraid when going out with this project because the government and extremists are taking over and threatening to cut our money,” he adds. “Putting Palestine and Israel next to each other is crazy for them. But I come from a place of seeking dialogue, of peace and bridges.”