Israeli director Uri Barbash sat down with i24NEWS to discuss his latest project, The Girl From Oslo.
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Titled Azharat Masa ("Travel advisory") in Hebrew and Bortført ("Abducted") in Norwegian, the 10-part series that currently ranks as the fourth most-watched show on the streaming giant's roster is among Netflix's top-10 most-viewed series in 36 countries, including the United States, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
The show was also a success at home and was the second-most-watched series in 2021.
When asked how he hopes viewers will respond to the series, Barbash responded, "I would say, I would like them to believe in the human spirit. Eventually the three characters, the Israeli, the Norwegian, and the Palestinian, they succeed to find some kind of compromise ... they do find a solution to this ordeal.
"The most important thing, I think, is to believe deeply in the possibility of the human spirit, which means peace in this region."
Barbash said he is surprised and happy at the global success of The Girl From Oslo, as the story contains multiple languages and takes place primarily in the Middle East.
"It's not only languages, it's traditions, it's culture, it's so many things that we were gathering in order to tell a story. And I think that's the core of the success of this series."
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Barbash mentioned the effect of the COVID pandemic, saying that actors were prevented from traveling to Israel due to restrictions, and that production members needed to enter quarantine several times.
However, due to the location of the production, the crew stayed relatively isolated.
"We succeeded in getting along aside COVID-19."
This article was first published by i24NEWS.
