False Flag

The series, loosely based on the true story of the assassination in Dubai of a senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh - the co-founder of military wing of the Islamist Palestinian group Hamas on 19 January 2010, revolves around five ordinary Israeli citizens who discover one morning via the media that they are the principal suspects of a high-profile kidnapping and are implicated as culprits in the kidnapping.

False Flag (2015-2022) is an Israeli national-television spy thriller series created by Amit Cohen, Maria Feldman and Leora Kamenetzky for Keshet 12 and Channel 2. Loosely inspired by the 2010 assassination of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, the story follows five ordinary Israeli citizens who discover through the news that they have become the principal suspects in a high-profile kidnapping. Ishai Golan plays Ben 'Benny' Rephael, a central figure drawn into the web, alongside Angel Bonanni as Sean Tilson, Neta Riskin as Anat Kedmi and Yiftach Klein as Sagi Kedmi. The engine of the show is their struggle to prove innocence while intelligence operatives manipulate their identities and lives from behind the scenes. Each episode builds tension through double identities, shifting alliances and the growing realization that their own state treats them as expendable cover. Across three seasons the show unfolds as one continuing serialized story, with the pressure escalating steadily. Its tone is taut, paranoid and grounded, shaped by moral unease and the fragility of ordinary lives caught in geopolitical machinery. Fans of Tehran, Fauda and The Americans will find resonance in its Mossad-world intrigue and its portrait of ordinary people crushed by state secrecy.

• Tehranshared espionage thriller tone, covert state operations, and ordinary people pulled into intelligence games
• Faudashared Mossad-focused spy drama, real-event inspiration, and tense procedural intrigue
• The Americansshared identity-driven paranoia and ordinary citizens caught in a state assassination plot

Created by

Amit Cohen, Maria Feldman, Leora Kamenetzky

Release Date

2015-10-29

Episode runtime

40 min

Rating

7.7 / 10 (31)

What is False Flag about?

Five ordinary Israelis wake up to find themselves framed as suspects in a Dubai assassination and must fight to clear their names.

What is False Flag like to watch?

Ember's analysis rates the pacing of False Flag as brisk, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.

Is False Flag violent?

Somewhat. Ember rates the violence in False Flag as moderate.

Which shows are like False Flag?

Shows with a similar feel include Tehran, Fauda, and The Americans.

How long is False Flag?

False Flag: 3 seasons, 25 episodes.

Is False Flag still running?

No, False Flag has ended.