The same week that season two of “Nobody Wants This” premiered on Netflix, another Jewish series — the period thriller “No One Saw Us Leave” — is taking the streaming platform by storm. As of the writing of this story, the show, which is based on a true story, is one of the top 10 most streamed shows in the United States and across the world.
What Is “No One Saw Us Leave” About?
“No One Saw Us Leave,” or “Nadie Nos Vio Partir” in Spanish, is based on an autobiographical book by Tamara Trottner. In 1968, she was abducted as a child from her affluent Mexico home by her father. They spent the following years running away from authorities with her big brother, Isaac, in tow. The three traveled from Mexico to France, Italy, South Africa and ended up in Israel, where Trottner’s distraught mother finally got them back after two years of effort and heartbreak.
In the show, Tessa Ia plays Tamara’s mother, Valeria Goldberg, who is stuck in an arranged and passionless marriage with Leo Saltzman (Emiliano Zurita) in Mexico’s tight-knit Ashkenazi Jewish community. The Goldberg and the Saltzman families are old friends, and the marriage seems more like a business merger than a love story. Valeria finds a special kinship and eventually, love, in her relationship with brother-in-law Carlos, played by Gustavo Bassani (“Transmitzvah”). Their affair enrages both Leo and his parents who encourage their son to take his two kids with Valeria and raise them on his own, on the run. In the meantime, Valeria’s parents recruit an ex-Mossad agent, Elías (Ari Brickman), to help them track down Leo and the kids.
“Nadie Nos Vio Partir” S1. (L to R) Gustavo Bassani as Carlos, Tessa Ia as Valeria, via Netflix
The show is based on Trottner’s book of the same title, a book in which she reverently but briefly touches on the story of her grandparents’ journey from Kiev to Mexico. This would later become the subject of the prequel of “No One Saw Us Leave,” “Pronunciaré sus nombres,” or “I Will Say Their Names.”
Jewish life, history and music are painted in vivid color in this show, which is full of beautiful moments and rituals. Valeria’s love for her children is illustrated when at the hospital bed, holding her newborn, the women around her sing the classic Yiddish tune of “Tumbalalaika.” We see their love, their sense of community and Valeria’s complete devotion.
Songs like “Havah Nagilah” and the Hebrew “Hayom Yom Huledet” birthday song are part of key moments in the show. The latter, in particular, accentuates the joy in Tamara’s birthday party before her kidnapping, and then is heard again when she celebrates her birthday in Israel, where her father finally ends up on a kibbutz.
While the Hebrew dialogue — mostly spoken by non-Israeli actors — can be a bit clunky and strange in the Israel episodes, the show still seems very concerned with portraying its Jewish and Israeli details in ways that feels authentic.
Leo and Valeria at their wedding
While Leo’s actions towards his wife and his children are abusive and dangerous, he isn’t painted in an entirely unsympathetic light. We get to find out who he is: a person passionate about communist ideals and the ideas of kibbutz living. When he and the kids end up in South Africa, he becomes deeply entrenched in the fight against apartheid. He is shown as an idealist and an attentive and caring father, who is swayed by his father’s manipulations, but ultimately, as a man who does hurt his kids, and who realizes that giving them back to Valeria is the right thing to do.
Samuel, Leo’s father, is shown as perhaps the true villain of the show. He works to turn their community against her, painting her as unstable and dangerous and urging his son to stay on the run despite the big international forces of the law being against him.
As for Valeria, she’s painted as a young woman trying to find her happiness who makes the mistake of having an affair but who is also brave enough to speak about her mistakes. She is also someone so loving, who will go to any lengths for her kids. Though the scenes between her and Carlos are steamy and passionate, the affair is based on more than passion. It’s clear they have real love, respect and kinship. Valeria is definitely a fierce Jewish female protagonist.
What happened to Tamara and Leo after “No One Saw Us Leave”
The credits of episode five of the limited series rightly assert that Tamara and Leo didn’t speak for 20 years.
Tamara and Isaac spent the rest of their lives being raised by Valeria and Carlos, who stayed together until Carlos’ death, and by their maternal grandparents, Moishe and Ana, Trottner shared in a recent interview. It was a happy, full childhood, and Valeria, who is still alive, remains Tamara’s biggest cheerleader. Valeria never spoke badly of her ex-husband despite the ordeal he put her through, saying merely that he was a good man who made bad decisions.
“Nadie Nos Vio Partir” S1. (L to R) Marion Sirot as Tamara, Alexander Varela as Isaac. Cr. Simone Falso/Netflix ©2025
Valeria and the kids no longer spoke with the father’s family. Leo, who was never arrested or penalized for what he did to Valeria and the kids, ended up starting a new life in the United States, marrying again and having more kids. A few years before the book came out, Trottner finally reached out to her father, and the two found a way to have a relationship again. Tamara not only found a way to forgive her father, he also helped her fill in the blanks for her book, telling her details about her paternal grandparents’ lives.
While Leo died in 2019 before the book came out, Valeria did get to read it, and loved it.
Will there be another season of “No One Saw Us Leave”?
It’s not likely that there will be more of Valeria’s story — the limited five-episode series tells the full breadth of Tamara and Isaac’s abduction and their release. It is, however, possible that after the huge success of the show, Trottner’s second book could get a TV adaptation. If it does, perhaps we’ll get to see the story of Ana and Moishe, a silk merchant who traveled from Kiev to Mexico to escape antisemitic persecution before the dawn of WWII.
For now, we will have to be content with this riveting period piece about a Jewish mother who moves the earth to get her two young children back to her.
