Pride and Prejudice Israel Style

גאווה ודעה קדומה

(That’s Pride and Prejudice in Hebrew apparently!)

I read a fantastic post about someone re-reading Pride and Prejudice in Hebrew last year, and the way the experience of the book differed due to the language.  It also mentioned that ‘Hot’ (an Israeli cable provider) was adapting P&P and putting it into modern day Israel (which reminds me of Gurinder Chadha and her Bollywood Bride and Prejudice).

A six-part mini series in Galilee, Elizabeth Bennet is transformed into Alona Sadeh (Yael Hadar) while Mr. Darcy becomes Nimrod Artzi (played by Dan Shapiro, also written ‘Shapira’ in some articles).  However it is no simple transformation, and many changes were made along the way.

Firstly, I have to say that some of the information in this article may be inaccurate.  This is due to the small amount of information available in English, and my reliance on Google Translator (which is crappy at the best of times, but even more so when translating Hebrew it seems) and comments from people in English.  But here goes with what I have.

From what I can gather, the series has been titled (or at least taglined) as ‘What is needed for a bachelor” (מה שנחוץ לרווק).   There are a tonne of pictures of them around in period-costume, but from what I can gather it is for the PR side of things, from Hot 3 channel, to market the series, and the actual piece is set in the 21st Century (check out this video here, which I think is the last episode, however I’ve been told you can watch all of them using the HOT VOD website or on youtube).

It was scripted and directed by Irit Linor, who was awesome beforehand as she had translated Pride and Prejudice into Hebrew, as it is a changing language, which requires updating.  (You might find this post interesting about a Rabbi-in-training’s experiences of reading a version of Pride and Prejudice in Hebrew)

The differences that have outraged Janeites over at AustenBlog?  Elizabeth/Alona is the daughter of Bed & Breakfast owners and now a 36 year old divorcee with a teenage child (I think it’s a fifteen-year-old girl).  Darcy is 28.  They both work in the same high-tech industry.  Most of the sisters no longer exist and Anat (the new ‘Jane’ character played by Jordan Bar Kokhba) is also a recent divorcee.

Other characters and details:
Bingley- Omar Ben-Gal played by Finnish Tabger
Alona’s Father- was supposed to be played by Arie Moscona, however he bailed out because of other commitments and workloads.
Produced by: Mrs. Productions
(Other actors- Hannah Slough, Motti Katz, Neta Riskin, Guri Alfi, Liron Achrkokali, Yael Dawnie, Roni Hadar, Anat Barzilai)

HOT did a run up to the event by playing other Austen related movies (of which a comment said the Jane Austen Book Club, and Lost In Austen, were present- but I cannot be sure).

As of May 31st ’09 the first episode ran.

(A new Elizabeth Bennet?)

I’m currently trying to find a version with English subtitles or dubbing available online.  If anyone knows of where I can find this, please let me know! Or, if you have seen the series and speak Hebrew, tell me what it’s like.  I’m dying to know how it worked out.  What do you think?  Would it have worked or would it have been a completely flop?

מה שנחוץ לרווק