An award-winning Israeli television series is coming to Toronto.
The first season of Your Honor, a 12-part crime drama, is being presented by the Toronto Jewish Film Foundation and the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies on November 5 and November 12 at 2 p.m. at Innis Town Hall, University of Toronto.
Created by Shlomo Mashiach and Ron Ninio, it is set in Beersheba and revolves around a respected judge who breaks the law to help his beleaguered son. Judging by the first three episodes, Your Honor crackles with tension.
Micha Alkobi (Yoram Hattab), the magistrate in question, strays into questionable terrain after his teenaged son, Shai (Erez Oved), is involved in a hit-and-run accident. Driving his father’s car, Shai hits a motorcyclist. He flees the scene, leaving the critically-injured victim on the road. Alkobi, a widower, wants to turn his asthmatic son in to the police, but Shai resists, forcing him to find another solution.
When Alkobi learns that the motorcyclist is the son of a notorious local gangster whom he sent to prison, he immediately understands that this could be a devilishly complicated and even dangerous case.
In desperation, Alkobi turns to Khaled (Hisham Suliman), his Bedouin friend. He asks Khaled, a high-ranking officer in the Israeli army, to get rid of the evidence — the car Shai drove on the day of the accident. Khaled obliges, arranging for his nephew, Juma Masri, to drive the car to a chop shop. En route to the garage, Masri is stopped by the police, beaten and arrested.
As Alkobi’s elaborate scheme unravels, he persuades a young and inexperienced lawyer, Yael Ben-Moshe (Alma Dishi), to defend Masri. Yael is more than just a colleague. She and Alkobi appear to be lovers, but one the surface, their relationship is quite formal.
Being determined at all costs to keep his son out of jail, Alkobi tries to implicate Masri in the hit-and-run. Masri, having remained loyally silent during police interrogations, is understandably upset by Alkobi’s betrayal.
Your Honor, now going into its second season, is a first-rate series thanks to a riveting screenplay and a stellar cast. In the ultimate compliment, it’s due to be adapted for American TV.