On 6 October 1973 a war began that would reshape the Middle East, and Valley of Tears (Sh'at Neila), a 2020 Israeli drama series directed by Yaron Zilberman, returns to those days through the people who lived through them.
What is Valley of Tears (Sh'at Neila) about?
The series opens against the first days of the October 1973 war, described in the catalogue as the biggest conflict the region had seen up to that point and one that many expected to be the last. Rather than treating those events as a documentary subject, Valley of Tears approaches them as scripted drama, following its characters as the scale of what is happening becomes clear and the expectations they carried into the week fall apart. Each episode runs about 45 minutes, which gives the story room to move between several people and several vantage points rather than resting on one. Zilberman directs it as a period war drama, and the two genre labels attached to the catalogue entry, drama and war, describe it exactly.
About the cast
Aviv Alush, Lior Ashkenazi, Maor Schwitzer, Joy Rieger, Ofer Hayoun, Lee Biran, Imri Biton and Shahar Taboch make up the principal cast. An ensemble of this size lets the series spread its story across multiple characters instead of a single lead, so the war is seen from more than one position and more than one set of stakes.
Context & significance
Produced in Israel and released in 2020, Valley of Tears is a war drama in series form. The war it depicts is one of the defining events of modern Middle Eastern history, and the show uses it as historical setting: the date is real, the stakes were real, and the fictional drama is built on top of them. As a scripted series rather than a documentary, it should be read as storytelling informed by history, not as a historical record, and viewers interested in the period may want to pair it with factual sources.
Watching Valley of Tears (Sh'at Neila) on Ktime
Valley of Tears streams on K-Time with both a Persian dub and Persian subtitles, so every episode can be watched in Farsi or in the original with subtitles. A K-Time account login is required to play the series; this page is free to read. K-Time's Farsi interface is built for Iranians living abroad and works on phone, tablet, TV and web, with episodes grouped so the season can be followed in order.