Oliver Masucci about filming in Israel: “It was partly surreal”

From July 24th, MagentaTV shows “The German”, a new spy thriller series with Oliver Masucci (56) in the leading role. It deals with a couple who met immediately after the Second World War: 25 years later, Uri (Masucci) and Anna (Ania Bukstein) are still in love. But when the Mossad Uri recruits for a dangerous mission in Germany, everything changes for the two.

For his role as Uri, Masucci learned the Hebrew language in which he partially plays. In an interview with Spot on News, the actor reveals how much he kept away from it and how he experienced the filming in Israel last year.

Oliver Masucci: The response to the series was very positive. It convinces with its high quality – despite a budget that is far below what is common in Germany. The series not only looks better than many domestic productions, and storytelling is also more precise, exciting. Fewer funds force to concentrate on the essentials – and that is exactly what makes the narrative so captivating. The audience reacted enthusiastically.

Behind the project are the authors of “Fauda”, “Tehran” and “The Girl from Oslo”. I myself – I am also a co -producer of the series – was involved in the scripts, I sanded them. And measured by the means, the result is impressive. I am very, very satisfied. However, there were also some activists on site at the premiere. The Pro-Palestinian demonstrators had booked half the hall, only to run out loudly.

Masucci: No, that’s not the point. The series plays in the 1970s. The focus is on secrets that have people who know each other for a long time and destroy life. Secrets that the state knows – and uses to blackmail people.

Masucci: I have been a big fan of “Fauda” and “Tehran” for a long time. When the team called, I was immediately fire and flame. I am excited about foreign countries, other languages – and the challenge of playing in it. When they suggested playing my role in Hebrew, I spontaneously said: “No chance.” For half an hour I explained why this is impossible. Then they asked: “Can we still try?” I had to laugh so that I said: “Well.”

Masucci: Yes. Every sentence. The text is in long -term memory. I learned the language backwards: first the texts for the series, then everyday life. Today I understand about 30, 40 percent. I speak Hebrew with a decent pronunciation. I trained the old Hebrew of the 70s. I now hear the language quite well – and can write it down in our syllables. I can’t read the Hebrew signs yet.

Masucci: I worked with a trick: the texts were divided into English syllables, each word was separated by binding screeds. In my head I had to transfer it to German again. This double translation was very exhausting. I started learning three months before shooting – several hours with a Hebrew coach for several hours. At first, every new scene looked impossible for me. It took me three days to read a scene at all. Then several days to be able to pronounce and emphasize the words correctly. After that I could start to memorize them.

Masucci: It was sometimes surreal. During the day you are on the beach and surf, while rockets fly over the country. Between 30 and 60 rockets came from Lebanon alone. The warning app constantly raised the alarm. My film colleagues said: “Show the thing. That makes you insane. You already notice when the rocket hits.” A Huthi drone hit a high-rise near my apartment. The Iron Dome starts the vast majority of the cities and infrastructure. But many rockets go into the open field. However, the defense shade does not help against the terroristate that take place regularly. The war is simply omnipresent in Israel. And that moves a lot with yourself. You can tell how privileges we live in Europe – at least so far.

Masucci: Yes, we had a mobile bunker – on a low loader. 50 people fit in there. He always made a huge noise when the crane put it in the middle of a scene next to the set. Someone then always called: “Make the engine briefly, we are turning.” Let’s say that were somewhat different working conditions than usual.

We also shot in the north, near the Lake Genezareth, below the Golan heights. If you are there, you are glad that they are occupied by the Israelis. Because it is bad enough that the Hezbollah rockets are shot from the Lebanon over the mountains. You don’t want to have terrorists on the mountains that shoot down from there.

Masucci: No. Probably because it was normal for everyone around me to live in the state of war. And I was not afraid: I was busy turning in a language that I had never spoken before. I also had such a naive trust that things go out well. But you can feel when it gets dangerous. I lived in Tel Aviv on the 21st floor, the shelters were on the intermediate floors. One morning at sunrise there was air alarm. My girlfriend woke me up and we knew: We have 90 seconds to get into the shelter. But: what do you attract? Do you take the laptop with you? Water? We didn’t know how long it would take. When we were finally at the bunker, the neighbors in Pyjamas came to bed on the way back. You get used to it. Once we were sitting in a restaurant when the sirens sounded all over the city. Everyone suddenly got up, went calmly but quickly down into the next shelter. Then we spent 15 minutes, met new people, then the alarm was over. And you sit down at your table again. This is how you live there.

Masucci: The trauma that through this country has already taken me and shaped me. I was on the border with Gaza, visited the places of the massacre on October 7th. The Kibbuzim Kfar Azar, Nir Oz, Re’im. We spoke the residents, whose family members and neighbors were shot and mutilated by Hamas in their houses. And worry about the hostages that were kidnapped to Gaza. What impressed me very much was that they kept saying the names of the victims and hostages and telling exactly what happened to them when. It is such a small country. Almost everyone knows everyone. I was twice on the site of the Nova Festival, in which more than 350 dancing young people were murdered. During one of the visits I took my eldest daughter with me. It was emotionally overwhelmed. The portraits of the victims are on the site as a kind of memorial. People smiling into the camera whose life had hardly started. And in the background you heard machine guns and detonations, fighting in Gaza. “The poor children,” said our companion, whose sister was murdered by Hamas. He said in Gaza.

Masucci: No. Israel is deeply split. The first victims of Hamas on October 7 were the left -liberals, the peace activists in the Kibbutzim. I was traveling with a hundred thousand demonstrators who have been demonstrating against their own government every Saturday, for over two years, before October 7th. At the same time, they pray that their children come back safely from the army. They love their land, long for peace – also with the Palestinians – have often lost hope that this will ever be possible. What impresses me: The Israelis celebrate life. Tel Aviv pulsates, the streets are full in the evening. Even with rocket alarm. Especially now, you say to yourself. And on the beach there is still surfing on the waves when the Iron Dome catches rockets.

Masucci: I had to get used to it. Everything happens at the same time. The work is more chaotic, faster, more improvised. Since the terrorist attack of Hamas, the uncertainty has shaped the whole country – this is also noticeable on the set. There is permanent excitement. People are vulnerable, tense, traumatized. The traffic is hectic. During my last visit I saw six accidents on the motorway from the airport to Tel Aviv. The astonishing thing is: you get more afraid when you look at it from the outside – if you read or see messages. Life simply continues on site and the shoot too, only more intense and faster.