"No Man's Land", "a family drama" at the heart of the Syrian conflict

Félix Moati (Antoine Habert) and Souheila Yacoub (Sarya) in the series “No Man's Land”.

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No Man's Land is that area between the front lines of two enemy armies.

This is precisely where the ambitious international co-production

, broadcast this Thursday at 8:45 pm on Arte, takes us.

This series in eight episodes takes us in the middle of the Syrian conflict in the footsteps of a Frenchwoman (Mélanie Thierry), presumed missing, whom her brother (Félix Moati) believed to recognize in a video of Kurdish fighters.

Meet the duo of Israeli screenwriters Amit Cohen and Ron Leshem, authors of the internationally acclaimed series

and

, at the helm of this powerful reflection on commitment, indoctrination and sacrifice.

How did the idea of ​​“No Man's Land” come about?

Amit Cohen 

: Ron and I wanted to find a way to tell ordinary people's stories against the backdrop of the Syrian Civil War.

And then we got a call from Maria Feldman, a friend we have worked with before.

She brought us the idea of ​​these fighting Kurdish women.

We loved to ink our history with this powerful image of women who are the only thing Daesh is afraid of.

Because when you do jihad, if you win, it leads to heaven, but if you are killed by the hand of a woman, you simply die.

You don't become a martyr and it's very scary for them.

How would you describe this series, as a drama, a thriller, or espionage?

AC

 : It's a mixture of all of that.

begins almost as a family drama, around a family secret and a brother who goes in search of his sister.

Syria is in the background.

This theme can intimidate the audience.

Antoine, like the spectator, knows that terrible things are happening in Syria, but this does not concern him personally, he cares above all about himself and his family.

And we start the journey with him.

Throughout the story, Antoine understands that this is something that goes beyond him.

And we hope the public will feel that.

That he will watch the first episodes for the mystery and then he will tell himself that it is a bigger story.

Ron Leshem

 : For me, it's a travel story.

Each character goes out of their comfort zone to fight for something.

Antoine, this ordinary guy from Paris takes this very short flight and finds himself in a completely different world.

The Syrian civil war, possibly the greatest tragedy of our lives, is only a few hours away.

And we pretend we don't notice it.

follows the incredible journey of an ordinary man.

We knew we wanted to write about women combatants in Syria, but the subject really caught my eye when Amit said to me: "It's like when Hemingway went to fight against the fascists in Spain".

I said to myself, you've always wanted to explore the life of a resistance fighter, that's it.

We wanted to write about women combatants and foreign volunteers.

Antoine is not initially interested in this war, but along the way, he will fall in love with this piece of land, with these beautiful people, but also with the feeling that the world really needs him and the cause.

We follow the course of the indoctrination of Daesh fighters and that of the engagement of volunteers.

On both sides, all your characters seem very lonely ...

AC:

And it's this loneliness that pushes them to find a place to belong, a place to which we belong.

Anna has lost her family and her beloved.

She tries to find a surrogate family within the Mossad.

And like, it ends badly, she tries to find something else.

Sarya had her life in Paris, and she doesn't feel out of place in her family in Kurdistan, so she turns to the fighters.

We also show friendship among Daesh fighters.

It's about finding your place in the world, finding a group to join.

RL: 

It's great that you felt that.

We hadn't heard it yet.

And I completely buy into it, long before the pandemic I was thinking about the loneliness and the fact that we were kind of lone wolves.

Daesh is a community, and the Kurdish combatants, a family… But in the end, in these tragedies and these journeys, you are totally alone.

Why did you call on the French screenwriter Xabi Molia for the French parties?

RL:

began as a French series, Arte is an extraordinary house for us with which we have worked closely for a long time.

It is our hard core.

But people from 10 different countries with 10 different languages ​​worked on

The TV series is becoming more and more global.

To our knowledge,

is the first completely globalized series.

AC: 

is an international co-production intended for the whole world.

The conflicts are not French, Israeli or Syrian… But shared by all.

Antoine's fight is not French.

The trio of Daesh fighters are British, but above all it is a matter of friendship.

We asked ourselves: what happens when friends find themselves in an extreme situation?

We appealed to Xabi for the French parts to make them appear authentic.

For the same reason, we had a Kurdish adviser and another Syrian.

On the set, with so many different countries and languages, it felt like, in a way, like in Syria, working towards a common goal.

Is “No Man's Land” a political series?

AC: 

There are political aspects, but it's not political in the sense that we don't want to lecture.

It is not a political science experiment.

Everything is seen through the eyes of the characters.

We wanted to talk about the hypocrisy of the West through Nasser's journey, for example.

RL:

I see it as very political.

When we ask people to feel compassion and empathy, that in itself is a political statement.

The series is all about the ability to feel, to have the ability to see through someone else's eyes.

This land has suffered the loss of over half a million deaths.

Millions of Syrians have lost their homes, families and homelands.

There are refugees all over the Middle East, in Europe and elsewhere.

And you hardly hear about it on the news anymore.

We have remained journalists in our veins and our souls.

It is a sacred profession, we miss it every day.

What we want in doing fiction is to get a bigger audience and in a more emotional way than with a documentary.

We want to wake people up, and that's political.

Criticizing Israel and criticizing the West for treating this land as a kind of chessboard is political.

From “False Flag” to “No Man's Land”, the Mossad is at the heart of your stories, what fascinates you and the public so much in espionage?

AC: 

Obviously, it's always interesting to imagine something unknown.

When we were working on

we didn't think that an Israeli series could be sold internationally.

No one was interested in the Mossad on Israeli TV.

In

, it's different.

The Mossad is almost a metaphor for the West.

We wanted to show in the most realistic way the people who are sent on our behalf to ensure that we will sleep better at night.

These people are meant to be the good guys, saving us and protecting us.

But at what cost ?

And what does this gray area look like?

And sometimes when they try to solve one problem, don't they create bigger ones?

RL:

We served as intelligence officers and learned about espionage during the peace process.

It was an optimistic time.

I wanted to become a journalist when I realized that our Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu, listened to the press much more than to intelligence reports.

We became journalists, but part of us has always remained a spy.

It sometimes feels like we miss this kind of game, but we constantly criticize it because it creates a certain apathy in Europe and you can't treat the world with this unforgivable cynicism.

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