''When Heroes Fly'' ( he, בשבילה גיבורים עפים, Bishvila Giborim Afim, Heroes fly for her) is an Israeli drama television series that was first broadcast in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

Keshet 12 Channel 12 ( he, ערוץ 12), also known as Keshet 12 ( he, קשת 12), is an Israeli free-to-air television channel owned by Keshet Media Group. It launched on 1 November 2017 as one of two replacements of the outgoing Channel 2. History Is ...

in May 2018. The series was created by Omri Givon and loosely based on the novel of the same name by Amir Gutfreund. It uses flashbacks to account for the differing time periods. In October 2018,

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

acquired international broadcasting rights to the series. Keshet has commissioned a second season. The series will also be adapted into an English version for the United States market titled ''

Echo 3 ''Echo 3'' is an American action thriller television series created by Mark Boal. The series, filmed in English and Spanish, stars Michiel Huisman, Luke Evans, and Jessica Ann Collins and is a black ops thriller and tale of international intr ...

'' by

Apple TV+ Apple TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a small network appliance hardware that plays received media data such as video and audio to a television set or external display. Since its secon ...

Synopsis

Four former

IDF IDF or idf may refer to: Defence forces * Irish Defence Forces * Israel Defense Forces *Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006 * Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917 Organizations * Israeli Diving Federation * Interac ...

veterans who served together in the 2006 Lebanon War are reunited for a rescue mission in Colombia, where one of them lives, to find Yaeli (

Ninet Tayeb Nati Ninet Tayeb ( he, נינט טייב; born October 21, 1983), commonly known as Ninet, is an Israeli musician, singer-songwriter, composer, DJ, model, actress, and a reality television program judge in '' Rising Star: Israel''. She is conside ...

), a woman once believed to have died in a car accident after the war.

Cast

Tomer Kapon Tomer Capone (also Kapon or Kappon or Capon, he, תומר קאפון; born July 15, 1985) is an Israeli actor. He has starred in popular Israeli exported television such as ''Hostages'' and the political thriller television series ''Fauda''. In ...

as Aviv Danino *

as Yael 'Yaeli' Ashkenazi *

Michael Aloni Michael Mark Aloni (or Alony; he, מיכאל אלוני; born 31 January 1984) is an Israeli actor, director, writer and television presenter. Early life Aloni was born in Tel Aviv, to a Hiloni, secular Jewish family. His mother is an attorney a ...

as Dotan 'Himmler' Friedman *Nadav Netz as Dov 'Dubi' Ashkenazi *Moshe Ashkenazi as Yakir 'Benda' Ben-David *Vanessa Chaplot as Maria *

Oded Fehr Oded Fehr ( he, עודד פהר; born ) is an Israeli actor based in the United States. He is known for his appearance as Ardeth Bay in the 1999 remake of ''The Mummy'' and its sequel '' The Mummy Returns'', as well as Carlos Olivera in '' Resi ...

as Moshiko Boaron *Dan Mor as Azoulay *Yael Sharoni as Noga Avrahami *Rita Shukrun as Aviv's mother *Gil Franc as Elisha ("Padre Palido") *Muli Shulman as Ronen Levinger *Assaf Ben-Shimon as Yaki *Nili Rogel as Rona Ashkenazi *Micha Celektar as Avi

Production

Creator Omri Givon had already met Amir Gutfreund, the writer of the original novel years before Gutfreund's death in 2015. Givon spent eight months writing the final script and decided to concentrate on adapting the final part of the novel that deals with Yaeli's rescue. Givon also decided to replace

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

with Colombia as the site of the rescue mission so that he could focus on the drug trade industry. Givon decided to film in Colombia due to the budget constraints of filming in his original choice,

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

. Filming also took place in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...

English adaptation

In July 2020, an English adaptation titled ''Echo 3'' was ordered as a straight-to-series of 10 episodes by

., to be produced by Keshet Studios with

Mark Boal Mark Boal (born January 23, 1973) is an American journalist, screenwriter, and film producer. Before he became a prominent figure of cinema, Boal worked as a journalist for such publications as ''Rolling Stone'', ''The Village Voice'', ''Salon' ...

as showrunner and executive producer. In May 2021, it was announced that

Luke Evans Luke George Evans (born 15 April 1979) is a Welsh actor and singer. He began his career on the stage, performing in many of London's West End productions such as ''Rent'', ''Miss Saigon'', and '' Piaf'' before making his film breakthrough in ...

was set to star in the series. In June 2021, Elizabeth Anweis and Jessica Ann Collins joined the cast.

Reception

The series won Best Series at the first Canneseries Festival in April 2018. Adrian Hennigan said in his review of the series for '' Haaretz'':

"What it does best is show how in Israel, mandatory army service is the melting pot that throws diverse groups together – so an Ashkenazi elite or Orthodox Jew can end up taking orders from a scrappy
Mizrahi ''Mizrachi'' or ''Mizrahi'' ( he, מזרחי) has two meanings. In the literal Hebrew meaning ''Eastern'', it may refer to: *Mizrahi Jews, Jews from the Middle East * Mizrahi (surname), a Sephardic surname, given to Jews who got to the Iberian P ...
kid in a combat unit – and how these formative experiences bond them like brothers for life." Hennigan also compared the show to the Israeli series '' Prisoners of War'': "...with both shows powerfully depicting the silent horrors of
PTSD Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on ...
as ex-soldiers struggle with their wartime experiences." Hennigan praised the performances, noting that "Aloni’s performance is the one that really stays with you."

Decider.com, a pop culture website operated by the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'', reviewed the series positively.

References

External links

* * {{rotten-tomatoes, tv/when_heroes_fly Israeli drama television series Hebrew-language television series 2018 Israeli television series debuts Thriller television series Channel 12 (Israel) original programming