Before the touching American series Everything’s Gonna Be Okay or the charming Australian reality TV show Love on the Spectrum, there have been We the Spectrum, the endearing Israeli drama released in the shadow of the popular Netflix series Atypical. And yet, this singular production, winner of the Grand Prix of the Séries Mania festival in Lille in 2018, takes a look that could not be more tender and sharp on the daily life of three young adults with autism – Zohar, Ron and Amit – who live in shared accommodation.
Here it is offered in Canada, thanks to CBC Gem, which acquired the rights after a nice harvest of prizes, including interpretation prizes at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival for Naomi Levov (Zohar) and Niv Majar (Ron) , to which we can only applaud as the actors have invested themselves intensely in their respective roles. Ben Yosipovich (Amit) completes this trio without spoiling it. Around them gravitate relatives, caregivers, colleagues or neighbors whom we follow through their prism, according to the wishes of the screenwriter and ideator, Dana Idisis, who wanted to pay tribute to her autistic brother by imagining a series of which he and his ilk would be the center.
At the realization, Yuval Shafferman managed not to deviate from this rule by sticking his camera to the energy of each one. This sometimes gives frenetic, even chaotic scenes, sometimes contemplative scenes, almost suspended in a time that belongs only to the three of them. These are linked naturally, with a few squeaks, so that the whole exudes a benevolence free from swelling or softness.
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