Aarcflick

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 wat...