Behind the Scenes of AMIA: The End of Truth

Marking the 31st anniversary of the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires—the deadliest terror attack in Argentinean history—Dori Media’s new thriller AMIA: The End of Truth premiered last month on the LatAm streaming platform Flow and free-to-air broadcaster Telefe, with an Israeli window on Netflix.

Written by Givon Snir, who also serves as showrunner, and Shuky Gur, and directed by Uruguayan filmmaker Guillermo Rocamora, the series speaks to the types of high-impact international co-productions that Dori Media Group has been pursuing in the scripted space.

“Everybody is looking for co-productions and partners,” Nadav Palti, president and CEO of Dori Media Group, which is selling the series worldwide, tells TV Drama. “It splits the cost and splits the risk.”

AMIA is being positioned as an action series, Palti says, fusing fact and fiction to tell the story of Diego (Michael Aloni), a Mossad agent whose sister was killed in the attack, and Gisela (Malena Sánchez), the local journalist he teams up with in his quest for answers.

“It’s an action drama,” Palti says. “We did a lot of research, but it’s not a documentary. It’s a fiction series, inspired by real events.”

Aloni had to become fluent in Spanish to join the cast as Diego. “The scripts were only ready for the final translation three weeks before shooting,” Aloni tells TV Drama. “I was already doing a Disney+ series filming in Spain. Luckily, I had surrounded myself with Spanish-speaking people. We started with the scenes that weren’t in Spanish, and then I had to learn it intensively. All the other actors were from Argentina or Uruguay, so I had to blend in quickly not to be left out. It was roughly a month and a half that I invested myself, and it was a smooth transition because no one spoke English!”

Researching the role, Aloni spoke to people from Argentina to understand the attack’s impact on the country. “For me, it was important to portray their stories and their tragedy to the world. Also, the story of Diego is very personal. He lost his sister. He’s not willing to let go of his own loss. The way to enter Diego’s world was to understand what it means to lose someone so close to you. What it means to fight when everything else is lost and you’re on your own.”

Like Palti, Aloni stresses that AMIA is at its heart an action thriller, referring to it as LatAm’s answer to Fauda. “It gets a hold of you right from the very first second.”

It is also a love story, says Aloni. “I had a great time working with Malena Sánchez. The sparks for us as actors show on-screen. [Her character] finds herself in a world she never thought she’d be in. The two worlds are colliding. It’s also a great love story. It peels all the layers of mystery off the Mossad agent that I portray. If you’re not into action, you get the love scenes. It’s something special for the audience.”

Palti adds, “This is a good story, with very good actors and high production values. And it’s an important story, especially these days. People need to remember it, analyze it and make sure it will not happen again.”