The future of public television is under constant debate in Israel. The debate grows in intensity when, as in recent months, there is a change of government accompanied by changes in directions and priorities in terms of information and cultural policy. Once upon a time, until about 30 years ago, public television was the only television. Today commercial television dominates the market, and cable stations and streaming channels consume even more of viewers’ time budgets. Public television has only one truly effective weapon, although it is not clear whether this will ensure its survival – the creation of programs with quality content. The original series occupy an important place from this point of view, and in recent years it can be said that a large part, perhaps most of the Israeli successes had as their starting point public television. Some have even become export commodities – the films themselves and the formats. ‘Carthago‘, the series whose first 12 episodes were broadcast in the previous weeks on the public television channel CAN, has a chance to be added to the series that can interest international audiences. In Israel, the broadcast of the series created by the brothers Reshef and Yannets Levi caused controversy from the beginning (one might say even before the beginning).
The story takes place in a British camp in Africa, where opponents of Great Britain are interned during the Second World War: Nazi sympathizers, Italian prisoners and members of Etzel and Lehi, the Jewish armed resistance organizations in Mandatory Palestine. Such camps did exist and some of the Jewish leaders and activists were interned in them, but not together with Nazi and Fascist prisoners. This historic license was immediately seized and criticized in Israel, including by former militants and their descendants. Without her, however, the entire plot of the film would not have been possible, as it is largely based on the coexistence and relationships between the British officers and camp guards (mostly soldiers recruited from the British colonies), the Jewish prisoners (with their own internal dissensions) and the German and Italian ones. Against this background unfolds a complex and rather implausible combination of love and espionage stories. However, it seems that credibility was not the main goal of the creators of this series.
The atmosphere of the film is interesting and very well designed. The cinematography is based upon a yellowish filter that creates the vision of a numb jungle in the African heat, where the beige and khaki uniforms are lost in the landscape. The concentration camp atmosphere is not without violence and pressure, but it does not reach the same level of terror as that of the Nazi camps. It may seem strange, but the first comparison term that came to mind was the original ‘Indiana Jones’ movie. The story and characters combine historical reenactment with a satirical approach, managing to balance partly the tension and violence of the historical period. There is also a love story, strange and impossible in the conditions of the war and the camp. Also described are the internal conflicts between the various Jewish resistance movements against the British colonial system, and the rigid hierarchy marked by class differences in the British army. The main characters are excellently described and some of them will remain in the memory of the viewers: the commander of the camp Colonel Davidson and his beautiful wife Helena, his Irish deputy Major McDonald, the Jewish actor Elija Levi, Jacob Dan the head of the Jewish resistance in the camp, Thomas Edinburgh – an English officer and German spy. The action has rhythm and surprises, although in a season of 12 episodes the scriptwriters could not avoid some repetitions. I almost always have the feeling that these series could be about 2 or 4 episodes shorter. There’s also a beautifully drawn comics-style summary at the end of each episode, which adds style and quality. The cast is international, the film in its original version is spoken in English, Hebrew and German. The actors are unknown or little known, and being all talented and well cast, this adds authenticity.
I am very curious whether ‘Carthago‘ will be successful in the market of international television series. The history of Israel, including the events that took place in the decades before the founding of the state and during the world wars, has been little covered recently in cinema or television. “Carthago” has not only one disclaimer but two, the result of the controversies caused by the broadcast of the first series. Their message is ‘this is not a documentary but a work of fiction’. It is a message that should not be missed. History is to be learned from other sources.