Israeli-French TV series coming on Mavi Marmara flotilla raid

An eight-episode series on the Mavi Marmara flotilla incident will be produced and filmed in 2022.

PRO-PALESTINIAN activists wave Turkish and Palestinian flags during the welcoming ceremony for the ‘Mavi Marmara,’ in Istanbul in December 2010. Nine Turkish activists died the previous May when IDF naval commandos stopped the ship. (photo credit: STRINGER/ REUTERS)
PRO-PALESTINIAN activists wave Turkish and Palestinian flags during the welcoming ceremony for the ‘Mavi Marmara,’ in Istanbul in December 2010. Nine Turkish activists died the previous May when IDF naval commandos stopped the ship.
(photo credit: STRINGER/ REUTERS)

An eight-episode series, Ocean Wind, based on the dramatic story of the Mavi Marmara flotilla incident in 2010, will be produced by Micky Rabinovitz, Gal Uchovsky and Moshe Edery, in collaboration with Babe Films, a French company. The series will be written by Jonni Zicoltz, who will also direct, along with Elad Chen and Dean Miroshnikov. Miroshnikov, a Ukrainian-born Israeli actor, was an IDF soldier who was seriously injured in the Mavi Marmara clash and nearly lost an eye. The script will be based partly on his experiences.

Ocean Wind will look not only at the flotilla but will explore the lives of those who fought and were on board, including the story of Miroshnikov’s childhood in Ukraine, his immigration and adolescence in Israel and the fulfillment of his dream of serving in the IDF naval forces. Following the incident, he has been lecturing students and soldiers all over the country on issues of Israeli identity and being an Israeli with foreign roots. 

In addition to writing the series, Miroshnikov will appear in it, alongside other Israeli actors, as well as Turkish and French actors. He starred in the series, Charlie Golf One, about combat medics, which was remade in the US as 68 Whiskey by Ron Howard.

 ‘OCEAN WIND’ actor Dean Mishoshnikov, an IDF soldier injured in the incident, is also one of the series’ writers. (credit: EITAN BURNETT)
‘OCEAN WIND’ actor Dean Mishoshnikov, an IDF soldier injured in the incident, is also one of the series’ writers. (credit: EITAN BURNETT)

Production on the series was interrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Filming is planned to start in the spring of 2022.