In what may be another step on the road to opening diplomatic ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Kan, the Israeli government broadcaster, announced this week that its documentary series, The Cassandra Prophecy, is being shown on a Saudi television network, MBC.
The series documents a joint decade-long operation by the Mossad and the US Drug Enforcement Administration to disrupt the flow of billions of dollars from drug cartels and money laundering operations in Latin America to Hezbollah and Iran.
Kan said in a statement that this is the first time that broadcasting rights for an Israeli television series have been sold to a Saudi broadcasting network.
The first Israeli TV series sold to a Saudi broadcaster
The Saudi broadcaster, MBC, operates in the Middle East and North Africa. It was launched in London in 1991 but is now run from Riyadh.
The series, which was directed by Duki Dror, written by Dror with Itai Landsberg and Dudi Oren, and produced by Liat Kamai-Eshed and Dana Wolfe, will also be broadcast soon on the German ZDF network, on Arte France, and on CBC Canada. The series is a German-Israeli-Canadian co-production, produced by Zygote Films. Script consultant David Toledano brokered the deal with MBC.
A Saudi flag flutters atop Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, October 20, 2018. (credit: REUTERS/HUSEYIN ALDEMIR/FILE PHOTO)Kan also announced this week that its educational drama series for teens and children, Special, about young people on the autism spectrum, was sold to the Turkish network, Kanal D, for a remake.