Al Difdaa

Al Difdaa (الضفدع), known in English as The Frog, is a Syrian crime thriller that first aired in April 2022 across 13 episodes of roughly 45 minutes each. The story opens on the Syrian Lebanese border, a stretch of country where smuggling routes have quietly become an industry. Narcotics move one way, looted antiquities the other, and the trade only works because people in uniform have agreed not to see it. When a wanted man slips out of the country with inside help, the file lands with Kenana, a lawyer played by Amal Arafa, who takes it far more seriously than anyone intended her to. What starts as a single case turns into a slow, careful pull on a much longer thread. Kenana pieces together how the antiquities network actually works, who shields it, and how much of the legal machinery has been quietly arranged to keep it running. The closer she gets, the narrower the distance becomes between the people she trusts and the people watching her. Directed by Yazan Abu Hamda, who wrote the screenplay and dialogue with Rami Shahin, Al Difdaa builds its tension through conversation and detail rather than spectacle. The cast includes Amal Arafa, Mohammad Hadaki, Jenny Esber as the lawyer Norma, Wafaa Mousilly, Hazem Zeidan, Marwa Al Atrash and Juan Al Kheder. Watch all 13 episodes of Al Difdaa in Arabic on Tesliya, on mobile, browser or smart TV.