The four-part series "Red Alert," a scripted account of the terrorist attacks in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, gains power from the absence of context. Conceived by writer, director, and co-creator Lior Chefetz ("The Stronghold"), the story avoids an overview of Hamas militants' incursion from the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) counteroffensive, or the broader history of an eight-decade-old conflict. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas commander Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the attacks, are never mentioned. (Not even the word "Palestinian" appears in the scripts.) Instead, the main characters in "Red Alert" are ordinary people: kibbutz residents, police officers, and kindergarten teachers caught off guard by a terrible wave of violence. We live the day as they do, almost in real time.
But it’s precisely the context of “Red Alert” that makes the series remarkable, especially for US viewers who can watch it on Paramount+. Parent company Paramount Skydance announced its acquisition of the series with a statement from newly appointed CEO David Ellison, who hailed “Red Alert” as “critical” and praised its “heartbreaking accuracy.” (Another prominent figure in US entertainment, “Pulp Fiction” producer Lawrence Bender, offered “Red Alert” his approval as an executive producer.)
Creators: Lior Chefetz, Ruth Efroni
Stars: Rotem Sela, Miki Leon, Rotem Abuhab
It’s highly unusual for an executive of Ellison’s stature to weigh in on a title his company didn’t even produce, as if Ted Sarandos were encouraging his subscribers to watch AMC’s “Interview with the Vampire” on Netflix. However, 10 days earlier, Ellison's Paramount had made another atypical decision: proactively condemning a boycott pledge directed at certain Israeli film institutions, indicating Ellison's personal interest in the setting and subject matter of "Red Alert." That same boycott indicates the other kind of context viewers will bring to "Red Alert," which coincides with the second anniversary of the horrific events it portrays.
The intervening two years have only brought more pain and bloodshed to the entire region. Some of these open wounds are mentioned in "Red Alert's" postscript, such as the continued captivity of four dozen Israeli hostages in Gaza; others are not, such as alleged war crimes and widespread famine in the Strip, in addition to a death toll estimated at more than 60,000. In theory, one could make a series as harrowing as "Red Alert," about babies dying from lack of food, doctors forced to treat amputees without anesthesia, and children shot dead by drones while playing foosball. Unlike "Red Alert," such a series probably couldn't be shot on location due to the near-total destruction of the Strip, and Ellison's Paramount would almost certainly not dare to do so.
While "Red Alert" attempts to isolate everything that isn't immediate and subjective, it joins projects like the traveling Nova Exhibition and the IDF-produced documentary "Bearing Witness," which offer their versions of a narrative that remains highly contested: that of the origins, objectives, and sympathetic parties in a war that still rages. Ellison clearly understands the power and importance of prioritizing certain stories over others. There's a reason why it chose to distribute "Red Alert" and not, for example, "No Other Land," the documentary about settler violence in the West Bank that never found US backing despite winning an Oscar earlier this year. This film was recently mentioned in an anonymous petition by 30 Paramount employees accusing the company of "silencing Palestinian voices" while "actively and exclusively providing platforms for Israeli perspectives."
Thus, it is the very elements that make "Red Alert" such a moving experience that also make it an inherently impossible work. In that moment, Chefetz, co-creator Ruth Efroni, and their collaborators place us in the early hours of that terrible day, when preparations for Simchat Torah were overtaken by matters of survival. But "Red Alert" arrives in the confusing and contested aftermath of October 7, a present to which viewers will inevitably return, no matter how vividly the staging of the recent past.
Each protagonist in "Red Alert" is based on a specific survivor; some are invoked by name, while others are given a pseudonym at their request. Batsheva Yahalomi (Rotem Sela) and her husband Ohad (Miki Leon) belong to the first group. The Yahalomis and their three children initially take refuge in the bomb shelter characteristic of many Israeli homes.
Elsewhere, another married couple, law enforcement officers Kobi (Israel Atias) and Nofar (Chen Amsalem), are separated while working separate shifts at the Nova Music Festival, the scene of some of the day's worst casualties. Educator Tali (Sara Vino) leaves her shelter in search of her son Itamar (Nevo Katan), while Palestinian-Israeli Ayoub (Hisham Sulliman) and his family are ambushed in their minivan, with no regard for their background. By focusing on these individuals in particular, "Red Alert" communicates the magnitude and trauma of October 7 while avoiding some of the more graphic elements of the attacks, such as sexual violence or the murder of minors. Instead, Chefetz takes pains to extol the heroism of parents and partners who risked their lives to protect their loved ones, a kind of silver lining to an otherwise terrible moment. Ayoub's inclusion indicates that "Red Alert" has its own political perspective, a decidedly liberal one within the Israeli national spectrum, despite adhering strictly to firsthand accounts.
The farmworker's face is the first we see on screen, cradling his young son, now motherless, as Hamas fighters resist leaving their makeshift shelter. "Red Alert" takes pains to highlight Ayoub's difficulty in obtaining an Israeli ID despite his long residency, a detail that takes on a stressful relevance when IDF soldiers finally arrive on the scene, only to point a gun at him and demand proof of his loyalty.
In a seamless denouement, the troops quickly accept Ayoub's crumpled receipts and school report cards. Nonetheless, the scene is a nod to the nuances behind the urgent, overwhelming panic of the unfolding crisis, and a haunting echo of the many similar encounters that don't end so amicably. The dialogue also frequently alludes to the army's disconcertingly late arrival, a scathing critique of a government—led by Netanyahu, who has yet to apologize for his role in the operational shortcomings—that failed in its duty to protect its citizens.
“Red Alert” otherwise excels at capturing the confusion and, at times, absurdity of the chaos the victims had to face alone. Without uniforms, it's nearly impossible to distinguish between friend and foe, leading a group of Israelis to identify themselves to the soldiers via a selfie in a group chat: “Smile so we don't look like Hamas!” In a strange and chilling encounter, Batsheva and her daughters encounter two unarmed men who speak English and urge her to accompany them, ostensibly for their safety. (Arabic-speaking Gazans and Hebrew-speaking Israelis use English as an intermediary language.) She refuses, and the men simply walk away. We never know exactly who they are or what happened to them, as the lack of resolution creates a sense of unease more subtle than the overt atrocities.
A disclaimer before each episode clarifies that "Red Alert" has fictionalized certain scenes. However, like many scripted works inspired by true events, the series invokes its proximity to real life to demonstrate its authenticity and maximize its emotional impact. In a now-common device, the end credits juxtapose the actors with the people they play, some with their faces pixelated to maintain anonymity. Some video clips show survivors on set, even chatting with the crew; others, in an awkward decision, reproduce actual footage from October 7 that Chefetz faithfully recreated. However tense the reused footage may be, their consistency with the final product is key. "Red Alert" clings so closely to its source material that it leaves little room for anything else—or at least, that's the intention. But the world beyond the series' limited scope still lurks, whether deliberately invoked or not.
All four episodes of "Red Alert" will be available on Paramount+ on October 7.
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