Valley of Tears

Israeli television production has a privileged position in the world compared to its size and repeatedly proves that it can come up with fresh ideas and new formats, which are then adopted by others. Through Valley of Tears, it entered the realm of the war genre where, considering the exceptional position that the Israeli army holds, it could feel more than at home. I was expecting something that would keep me grounded, but I got something that made me uncertain. The series has the status of the most expensive project in Israeli television and truly is a spectacle, where the crew manages to mobilize dozens of tanks and simulate a large-scale tank battle - the largest tank force clash since World War II. However, the focus for the filmmakers was the intimate stories of several war participants. Instead of being absorbed by the story, opposing questions gradually began to creep in. We follow the occupants of the fortress, who passively wait hidden behind sandbags armed with handguns until the enemy blows up the entrance. Does the base really not have any machine guns and heavy weapons for the defenders to offer resistance? The base commander does not know its layout and therefore the escape route. The intelligence officer does not deal with the disposal of classified materials and does not save encryption keys. He has a different task - to take care of his pet hedgehog. In the subsequent episodes, we see how the hedgehog struggles to escape from the fortress, jumps off rocks, is gently carried through enemy territory by the night march, undergoes a bloody combat encounter, and goes through a minefield. This makes me wonder if Soviet soldiers also carried their cats and guinea pigs in a box during retreats from battles. Sometimes, the plot just seemed somewhat crazy to me. There's also another situation: a group of infantry takes refuge in a bunker on top of a mountain, which theoretically could have provided control over a wide area, but it lacks shooting positions and observation posts, so the soldiers have to run out into the rain of artillery shells to find out what is happening around them. I don't know, I'm an amateur, but it seems absurd to me. Even the naivety and incompetence of the Arab side sometimes go to extremes. However, I don't want to just criticize the series. There is still a lot of diligently done work here, and in the end, I do lean towards giving it four stars. Overall impression: 70%. Perhaps just one addition: Israel has always interpreted its conflict with its Arab neighbors as a battle of David and Goliath, but the reality was that Israel represented the penetration of the modern Euro-American world into an area categorized as developing. In tactics, strategy, and even in the military-industrial complex, it always had the upper hand, not to mention its ownership of nuclear weapons. (2021-01-03)

In the first few episodes, you're just getting to know the main characters, and honestly, I found myself pausing more than once, wondering why everyone was acting so clueless. It felt like I was watching a bunch of fools, not soldiers fighting in the Yom Kippur War on Israel’s side. Based on this mini-series, you'd think Israel should never go to war. They've endured enough, and clearly, warfare isn't their strength—at least that's the impression early on. But as the series goes on, the war atmosphere gets increasingly intense and gripping. By the end, I was impressed with how well they captured the gritty feel of battle on what seemed like a pretty tight budget. (2021-02-02)