Israeli Drama Shtisel Set for Turkish Remake

Dori Media Group (DMG) has licensed remake rights for the Israeli drama Shtisel to the Turkish production company OGM Pictures.

OGM Pictures plans to produce at least 20 episodes in the first season of the Turkish adaptation of Shtisel for Star TV. The drama is set in the world of ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Produced by Abot Hameiri (a Fremantle company) for YES, the series was created and written by Ori Elon and Yehonatan Indursky. Season one won 11 awards at the Israeli TV Awards 2013, including best drama series, best actor and best script, while season two won six awards at the Israeli TV Awards 2015, including best actor and best actress.

Nadav Palti, CEO and president of Dori Media Group, said: “For such an excellent Turkish production company to choose a format like this just goes to show how audiences from all backgrounds, be they Muslim or Jewish, or anyone else for that matter, can relate to the same family values and often fraught dynamics, significance of tradition, ceremony of food, etc., portrayed in Shtisel. At Dori Media, we believe that this universal appeal has been the driving force behind the huge success of this sensitive, compelling drama, and we are extremely excited about this next step involving OGM Pictures in Turkey.”

Onur Guvenatam, founder of OGM Pictures in Turkey, said: “As OGM Pictures, we are so pleased and honored to introduce Ömer, the Turkish adaptation of the world-famous drama series Shtisel to our audience. Shtisel is a very unique format that can be adapted to almost every culture and religion. So we are very excited to present Ömer in harmony with our culture and traditions. We believe our audience will also enjoy watching these cultural and religious practices and their effects on our characters and relationships that are so familiar to us.”

Dikla Barkai, Shtisel producer and head of drama at Abot Hameiri, said: “We are very excited to see Shtisel adapted into a Turkish drama series. From the little we have seen so far, trailer only, it was possible to distinguish quite a few similar elements. It is amazing that an Israeli series that tells a story about an ultra-Orthodox family in the ultra-Orthodox world of ‘Mea Shearim’ in Jerusalem looks so similar even when it is adapted into a drama series about Muslims in Turkey. It only emphasizes the strong human element in the series, which ultimately transcends religion and social affiliation. Eventually, we are all the same.”