1. Plot

2. Cast

3. Production

4. Series overview

5. Reception

6. References

7. External links

Zaguri Imperia ({{lang-he|זגורי אימפריה}}, lit. Zaguri Empire) is an Israeli mystery comedy-drama, created by Maor Zaguri and produced by HOT Telecommunication Systems. The first season was broadcast on the cable channel HOT3 between April 8 to June 4, 2014. The second opened on 3 February 2015 and ended on 1 April 2015. The series was both one of the most expensive and most successful to ever air on Israeli television.

Plot

The series opens with a flashforward of Aviel Zaguri, his face spattered with blood, stating before a police officer that he has killed his father. He mutters that none can escape the hand of prophecy, and that he is Oedipus.

Eight years ago, Aviel was sent away from his home in Beersheba to a boarding school. He strove to discard his traditional Moroccan-Jewish heritage, adopting the norms and culture of his middle-class, Eastern European-descended, Waspy (Ashkenazim) peers and even dropping his surname in favour of the more all-Israeli sounding "Gur". He is now a promising career officer in the IDF's Artillery Corps, holding the rank of a captain. Aviel is torn away from his military environment when urgently called back home, which he has barely visited since his departure, to the deathbed of his Grandfather Pinto. Decades ago, the latter owned the South's most prosperous falafel stand; his adopted son Albert ("Beber") married his biological daughter Vivienne in spite of his severe opposition, and gradually drove Pinto out of business. Both severed all ties between them. Aviel is the only family member who reestablished contact with the old man, who made Aviel swear that someday he would reopen the stand and return it to its former glory, but he has forgotten his oath.

Aviel grudgingly brings with him his Ashkenazi girlfriend Shahar, a fellow officer, who is baffled by his stereotypical Moroccan family, the members of which hold a dim view of the ethnic gap in Israel – Beber refuses to honor the moment of silence on Holocaust Remembrance Day, mockingly stating "I will stand when they teach about my 'shtetl' in Morocco!" – and instantly dub her "mayonnaise" referring to her pale complexion. Aviel confronts the provincial, superstitious-religious, and poverty-stricken world he believed he left behind: His estranged, miserly, eccentric father and his entire family of nine souls reside in a cramped apartment. His mother, Vivienne, is a superstitious diabetic who has a complex relationship with her own mother, Alegria. Aviel's older brother, Avi, is a low-ranking police officer who still lives with his parents, while the younger twenty-something Eviatar dreams of a career in Oriental music and occasionally engages in petty crime for the local mafia boss, Ciao. 32-year-old eldest sister Miri is a desperate spinster; another younger brother, Avishay, suffers from supposed mental retardation, though he is intelligent in his own way. The young teen Abir is foul-mouthed, violent, and troubled, and his slightly older sister Avigail is neurotic. Aviel is most burdened by his tension with his formerly close sister Avishag, who has grown to become an indulgent, capricious beauty. The household is dysfunctional, with everyone holding grudges; Beber adores and spoils Avishag, who neither works nor studies although she is already 25, to the resentment of her siblings. Vivienne has a similarly suffocating relationship with her long-lost Aviel and attempts to have him stay permanently. The newly returned Aviel also meets his old friend Lizzy, a young woman who adheres to a traditionalist, supernatural worldview that Aviel regards as absurd.

During Pinto's funeral, the Zaguris are visited by his elderly sister, Mas'uda. The old woman, who carries the reputation of being a witch, demands that Aviel – whom she and her brother call "The Circumcised", as he was born without a foreskin – uphold his vow. Upon perceiving his disinterest in doing so, she curses the family, compelling them all, and Aviel especially, to delve into the dark and troubled past while confronting their own bleak present.

Cast

• Oz Zehavi as Aviel Zaguri (Gur)
• Moshe Ivgy as Albert "Beber" Zaguri
• Sara von Schwarze as Vivienne "Vivi" Zaguri
• Chen Amsalem as Avishag Zaguri
• Ninet Tayeb as Elizabeth "Lizzy"
• Israel Atias as Eviatar Zaguri
• Yafit Asulin as Miriam "Miri" Zaguri
• Kobi Maimon as Avi Zaguri
• Hila Harush as Avigail Zaguri
• Eyal Shikratzi as Abir Zaguri
• Daniel Sabag as Avishay Zaguri
• Hava Ortman as Grandmother Alegria
• Zohar Strauss as Dino
• Gal Macadar as Natalie
• Makram Khoury as Superintendent Hazan
• Yaara Pelzig as Shahar
• Ori Laizerouvich as Elbaz
• Hilly Lewis as Vicky
• Assaf Ben-Lulu as Dudu
• Loai Nofi as Muhammad "Hamud"
• Maor Zaguri as Ciao
• Judith Mergui as Michele
• Abraham Celektar as Grandfather Pinto
• Morris Cohen as the Rabbi
• Shlomi Tapiaro as "Alex X"
• Ronit Starshnov as Shimrit
• Alex Krul as Otto
• Dvora Kedar as Aunt Mas'uda
• Lior Narkis as himself
• Dror Keren as Kabbalist "Azriel son of Hadasa"

Production

Series creator Maor Zaguri had a prolific career in theater, writing thirteen plays of which he directed eleven himself, before engaging in the field of television. He conceived the basic premise behind Zaguri Empire in late 2010, when he had to leave Tel Aviv and move back with his parents in Beersheva for a month. He recalled that he was completely sucked back into his home environment, and the experience shook him. He decided to "tell the story of someone who returns home" and is similarly transformed. The character of Aviel, who attempted to blend into the outside society and leave his old world behind, is somewhat based on the writer's own biography, and he deliberately named the fictional family in the series after his own. Combined with his personal story, he sought to address the larger subject of ethnic relations within Israeli society, which he believed should be tackled from a fresh, unbiased and unbitter angle by young Middle Eastern-descended (Mizrahim) artists. Zaguri was convinced that such an approach would effect a self-emancipation similar to that which African-American culture underwent in the United States.^[1][2]

When attempting to enter the television business, he approached HOT's drama chief Mirit Tovi with three different outlines; the one which was developed into Zaguri Empire was his least favourite, but she preferred it over the others.^[2] Their basic agreement was to produce a relatively cheap daily drama. However, when compiling the script, Zaguri constantly elaborated it, adding subplots and expensive outdoor scenes with many extras. He worked on the project for over a year, making the plot ever more complex and theatrical but not nearing completion, until the company coupled him with professional screenwriter Uri Weissbrod, who helped him finish. Weissbrod acceded to the high production standard set by Zaguri.^[1] They did not write it as a low-cost daily and insisted beforehand on the best actors in Israel, a decision that resulted in a necessary expenditure double of what was projected earlier. Although Zaguri recalled it was a gamble on someone who had no former experience with television, Tovi took it and accepted.^[2] While the budget remained undisclosed, sources within the company told the press it was the most expensive project undertaken by HOT since its establishment and claimed Zaguri Empire was Israel's highest-costing television production ever.^[1][7] It was approved when Israeli studios, influenced by the great success of Prisoners of War by Gideon Raff who was nearly anonymous before making his breakthrough, sought to encourage young and unknown artists.^[3] The creator fully immersed himself in the process, participating in all stages and eventually directing the second season of the two made.^[2]

Zaguri assembled the cast in what reviewer Na'amah Nagar perceived as a deliberate mocking of ethnic conventions. Some of the most stereotypical Moroccan characters were portrayed by European-descended actors. Vivienne was depicted by the Sara von Schwarze, her mother Alegria by Hava Ortman and the role of Mas'udah was played by Dvora Kedar-Halter, whose most recognized appearance on screen was that of the neurotic, Polish mother in Lemon Popsicle. He also granted himself the role of the mafia boss Ciao.^[4] Ninet Tayeb was originally cast as Avishag, but had to forgo due to previous commitments in the music industry, leaving the role to the young and anonymous Chen Amsalem, who entered acting school just three months before passing the audition. Tayeb eventually received the part of Lizzy.^[5][6] Principal photography commenced in February 2013,^[7] and both planned seasons, with some fifty episodes combined, were shot during the next nine months.^[8] The first was aired between April 8 and June 4, 2014, and the second would be broadcast from February 3, 2015.^[9] The first episode of the new one had a preliminary release on 29 January 2015.

Series overview

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"

• Rosa Ullstein
• Rosaura at 10 O'Clock
• Rosaura Lopez
• Rosaura Zapata
• Rosa Valetti
• Rosa Venegas
• Rosa Venerini
• Rosa Venus
• Rosa Vercellana
• Rosa 'Violet Carson'
• Rosa virginiana
• Rosa von Praunheim
• Rosawa
• Rosa Waldeck
• Rosa x centifolia
• Rosa x damascena
• Rosa Zafferani
• Rosazza
• Rosa × centifolia
• Rosa × damascena
• Rosa – A Horse Drama
• Rosbach
• Rosbach v.d. Höhe
• Rosbach vor der Höhe
• Rosbank