NORTHERN CALIFORNIA PREMIERE
A complex character piece, the Israeli television drama Commandments comes to the US, with two striking episodes delving into unlikely friendships, romance and a riveting mystery. After heisting a priceless mezuzah and making a daring escape, wily thief Amram needs a place to hide. By sheer chance, Amram boards a bus heading to basic training for the Israeli army, mandatory service he has been dodging for months. But this is not just any bus, it’s full of Orthodox Jews, who make up nine percent of the Israeli population and are exempted from service for religious belief.
With characters inspired by real-life Israeli enlistees, these men still feel the call to serve despite their exemption. Amram is now a fish out of water both within the military system and in this company of religious men. But his brash and aggressive nature might just benefit his platoon, and perhaps he too can learn something. Amram’s unlikely friendship with Yaacov, a lanky gentle Orthodox Jew battling his family and community for his right to serve, is the backbone of this intriguing show, which follows the duo’s unlikely alliance, their flirtations with women on base and the mysteries about the rest of their company. And all the while Amram must still keep his secret past hidden, as well as his loot. — J.T. Greenstein
Ayelet Gundar-Goshen was born in Israel. She has a master's degree in psychology from Tel Aviv University. During her studies, she worked as a journalist and news editor in the leading Israeli news paper, Yedioth Ahronoth. She also studied screenplay in Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem. She is a clinical psychologist and teaches psychology in Tel Aviv University and the Holon Institute of Technology. She is the author of the novels One Night, Markovitch and Waking Lions.
Yoav Shutan-Goshen was born in Israel in 1980. He received a BA in law and humanities from Tel Aviv University and completed a screenwriters program at the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School. Shutan-Goshen has worked as a journalist for Yedioth Ahronoth, as well as writing a comic column for The Marker. He is now a playwright for the Gesher, Beit Lessin and Beersheba Theaters, and also wrote a drama series for Channel 2 TV. His feature film will be released in 2017. Shutan-Goshen lives in Tel Aviv with his wife, author Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, and teaches law at Sapir College. One Woman, One Time is his first novel.