Prisoners of War starts on January 19
Prisoners of War – the gripping ten-part drama which the award-winning American series Homeland is based on – premieres on SBS on January 19.
When three Israeli soldiers are captured behind enemy lines on a secret mission in Lebanon, their fate is unknown. That is until 17 years later, when they mysteriously return home – two of them alive, the third in a coffin.
As they attempt to reintegrate into society, and try to cope with the pressures of being reintroduced to their families and friends, as well as handling the national hero status being thrust upon them via the public limelight, the story of their time in captivity unfolds.
Some partners have waited for them, while others have moved on. Children have grown up without them and parents have died. When undergoing psychiatric evaluations and military debriefings, discrepancies in their stories are revealed and an investigation is launched to discover what they are hiding.
Winner of nine Israeli Academy of Film and Television Awards, this compelling series navigates from delicate political themes to poignant domestic drama, under the direction of acclaimed writer Gideon Raff. The thrilling plot unravels through three time plains: before capture, life in captivity and present day, which all intertwine to reveal dark secrets about their life in captivity.
Episode One: Homecoming
Saturday January 19, 8.30pm
The hostage negotiation for the release of three Israeli soldiers captured behind enemy lines in Lebanon 17 years ago, has ended. Nimrode Klein, Uri Zach and Amiel Ben-Chorin are coming home. Nimrode and Uri alive, but Amiel was killed in captivity, and returns in a coffin. Nimrode meets his wife Talia, who’s been waiting all these years and leading the campaign for his release. He meets his 19-year-old daughter Dana and his son whom he’s never met, 17-year-old Hatzav. Uri meets his fiancé Nurit, and discovers she married his brother several years after he became a POW, an act that broke his family apart. Yael Ben-Chorin imagines her brother Amiel, what he’d look like now and how he’d act if he had returned alive.
Episode Two: The Facility (Part 1)
Saturday January 26, 8.30pm
Nimrode and Uri are taken to an interrogation facility for former POWs in Zikron Ya’akov, where they meet Haim, a military psychologist who’s supposed to figure out exactly what they went through in captivity. Talia, in an emotional upheaval from her husband’s return, struggles to deal with the fact that he’s suddenly back home. Nurit is torn between Yaki and Uri, whose return has awakened feelings she thought were long gone. Yael Ben-Chorin arrives at the ABU-Kabir Morgue and demands to see her brother’s body. Ilan is the only one who manages to calm her down and get her to give up on the idea.
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