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Not Your Fault

Screenwriters:

Or Sinai, Einat Weinboim

Producer:

Adi Bar Yossef

,

BARYO

Language:

Hebrew

Format:

LOGLINE

Dori, a volunteer at a help center for victims of sexual assault, has her world turned upside down when she receives an anonymous report about a rape that took place years ago. She suspects that Yonatan, her wonderful partner, and the father of her unborn child, might be the rapist in question.

SYNOPSIS

It seems that Dori (33) has it all. She just found out that she’s pregnant with her sweet and sensitive partner, Yonatan’s child. They have shared a life together for seven years, and they are about to purchase an apartment, in preparation for their expanding family. She has her own business – a successful vintage shop in Tel Aviv. But she spends most of her time and energy as a veteran volunteer at a help center for victims of sexual assault; this is the place where she feels the most satisfaction and meaning.

One evening, while on a shift at the emergency hotline at the help center, Dori receives an anonymous call. The caller has just remembered repressed memories. She says she was drugged and raped at a music festival in the desert over a decade ago. The caller doesn’t remember what her attacker looked like, but she does remember the unique tattoo on his shoulder. She also remembers the smell of his aftershave, and the song that he played while he attacked her - the song that he went out of his way to tell her how much he loved. Dori trembles, she already knows all of this – the description of the rapist sounds horribly similar to her partner Yonatan (40). This is the same Yonatan that she is in love with, the music teacher, the former farm boy, the one who cares about the environment and animals, the man that she tied her life to, the man whose child she carries in her womb. Her Yonatan. What is she supposed to do now? To throw away all of those good years and future plans, just because of one suspicious phone call?

Frightened Dori embarks on a journey, right underneath Yonatan’s nose, as she searches for clues in the case. Yonatan currently works as a music teacher at an elementary school, but he used to be a guitarist in a successful rock band from the 2000s called Primary Needs. It was precisely at the height of their success that the band unexpectedly broke up, and Yonatan decided to stay out of the spotlight. Under false pretenses, Dori meets with those who were close to Yonatan at that time, as she tries to gather information that will tip the scales, while simultaneously failing to lead a normal relationship with Yonatan. On his part, Yonatan doesn’t understand Dori’s distance and strange behavior. However, he is convinced by those around him that Dori is simply acting out due to the stress of the pregnancy and purchasing their first apartment, and “she’ll get over it”.

And eventually Dori does feel immensely relieved when she discovers that the anonymous caller is Zohar (31), an emotionally unstable woman who is hospitalized in a psychiatric ward, and is known to “harass” the help center’s hotline. Suddenly Zohar’s story sounds dubious and made-up, and Dori decides to let go of her suspicions and move on with her life. But soon after, the case comes back to haunt her. When Zohar is released from the psychiatric ward, she decides to file a complaint about the rape incident, and Dori is asked by the help center to accompany Zohar to the police. Dori shows up with the intention of neutralizing the threat that Zohar poses to her life, and tries to dissuade her from filing the complaint, but she is surprised to find out that Zohar is a wise and determined woman, far from the crazy girl she imagined her to be. Zohar reveals additional details that clearly point towards Yonatan, and Dori can’t continue to deny it any longer. Zohar’s story wounds her heart, and she bravely stands alongside her.

Dori and Zohar get closer and closer, developing a special bond, an almost symbiotic relationship that transcends all boundaries. During their joint investigation, they discover that Zohar’s rape is only a drop in the ocean; There was not one single rape that happened at that festival, but rather a broad manipulative, wide range of sexual assaults. They are pursuing a sophisticated, serial rapist, that none of the victims are able to identify. Could it be Yonatan?

The quest for truth causes Dori’s life to turn upside down. She suffers from an inflammatory skin disease that makes her miserable and restricts her work, she moves further and further away from Yonatan, she lies to her colleagues at the help center, and she is forced to confront the unresolved abuse story from her childhood. As the investigation continues, it turns out that Yonatan is in fact not the rapist; it was Chaim (55), the lead singer of Primary Needs. Dori realizes that although Yonatan did not play an active role, he was a silent witness, and even cooperated with Chaim’s horrific actions, and kept this dark secret for years. The “gray” area in which Yonatan functioned does not make things easier for Dori. Now she is faced with an even more complex question: Is it possible to forgive someone who witnessed acts of abused but did not commit them himself?

Yonatan, ashamed of his past, is determined to do everything he can to atone for his sins and receive his punishment. Meanwhile, the women at the help center, the community to which Dori has belonged to for years, criticize and boycott her over her relationship with a man who assisted in a chain of sexual assaults. Dori grapples with the question – should she stand by the man she loves, who wishes and strives for atonement? Or should she stand with the victims for whom she volunteers and fought for all her life, who are in some way also part of her identity? All the while, a small baby grows inside her, and the idea of giving birth to Yonatan’s son is becoming more and more oppressive.

“Not Your Fault” is a moving, ironic, and challenging drama series that examines the broad and elusive spectrum of consent, and offers an original perspective on the harm that is caused by sexual assault even years after it has occurred, not only for the victim – but for the perpetrator and their surroundings as well. What happens when the sexually abused individual, the one that seems far away, somewhere in the news, enters your home? And what if the rapist is not an evil man who traps women in a dark alley, but rather is someone like us, who shares their life with us? And what about the identity of the woman who dedicates her life to the victims, when the victim endangers her relationship and her future? During the eight episodes of this series, Dori is faced with all of these questions, all the while fearing that she herself will turn in a silent witness to the crime before her.

WRITER'S STATEMENT

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