Teen Vampire Debuts on Israeli TV
High-School Heroine: A new Israeli TV show follows a 15-year-old girl who discovers she is half-vampire, half-human. Image by OHAD ROMANO
They could have called her “Batya the Vampire Slayer.”
Following the international success of last year’s vampire drama “Twilight,” Israeli cable provider HOT is ready to broadcast its own bloodsucker-themed series. The show, “Split,” follows a 15-year-old girl whose identity — as half-vampire, half-human — is revealed to her by a mysterious male classmate, a newcomer who turns out to be roughly 300 years her senior. The series, which features elaborate makeup and special effects, will debut on May 28 and is produced by the same team behind several of Israel’s most popular prime-time soap operas.
As with “Twilight,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and virtually every other vampire-themed drama, “Split” appears to have a subtext only partly masked by all the pale skin and fangs. After the show’s heroine learns her true identity, she is “drawn into an ancient conflict” between humans and vampires, and eventually discovers she was “born… to put an end to the war,” as a HOT press release put it.
Whatever ancient conflicts the show addresses, it also devotes attention to the more universal elements of adolescence — the same sorts of worries about romance and social status depicted in “Twilight” and “Buffy.” Portraying the conflicted heroine is actress Amit Farkash, who last year played the female lead in a Hebrew-language stage version of “High School Musical.”
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