Filmmaker Igal Hecht knows men are the focal point of the Torah. That’s one of the reasons he set out to make Daughters of Eve, a new docudrama series, which centres on extraordinary women from both the Jewish and Christian scriptures.

Take the story of Abraham and Sarah, for instance, notes Hecht while discussing his upcoming project. “Abraham is usually in the forefront,” he says. “But really the story is about these two women [Sarah and Hagar] and Abraham should be taking the backseat.”

Fittingly, each Daughter of Eve episode will follow at least one female character. Rachel and Leah get an episode, as do Deborah, Ruth and Naomi as well as Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Jesus.

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“The majority of the women are from the Old Testament,” says Hecht. “But also, we wanted to incorporate women from the New Testament. So the show is really accessible and reaches out to people of all faiths.”

Hecht first started pitching Daughters of Eve back in 2011. He’d read a few books about the topic, but couldn’t think of a program that specifically focused on the Bible from a woman’s perspective. He thought it would make a great project, and so did Yes TV, who picked it up two years later. Now, it’ll finally premiere at the end of the month.

The series features commentary from notable Bible historians, such as Hebrew University professor emeritus Yair Zakovitch, as well as dramatic re-enactments.

“We brought the Bible to life in Israel,” says Hecht, who moved to Canada from Israel about 30 years ago. Besides spending a few months shooting scenes in Alberta, he and his crew filmed most of the series in the Holy Land along with a huge cast of actors as well as sheep and camels.

They traveled to 11 different locations across Israel, including Nazareth, Jerusalem and to areas near the Negev Desert.

“Our crew sort of reflected the area,” says Hecht. “We had Muslims, we had Christians, we had Jews working together on this program, which was really wonderful.” Though, Hecht says he wasn’t trying to make a political statement; he just wanted to work with the best local crew he could find.

Yet, much of Hecht’s earlier films do focus on politics. That’s not altogether surprising considering in 1999 he started a company called Chutzpa Productions through which he’s released a wide body of work. Many of these films, like A Universal Language and My Flag, focus on both Jewish and Israeli themes.

Daughters of Eve, however, isn’t under the Chutzpa banner. Rather, Hecht and Mike Wright produced it, while Keran Rees directed the entire series.

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Along with producing, Hecht plays a rather central part in the Rachel and Leah episode. Since he had a long hair and a beard, he jumped in to play Laban. And he’s not the only Canadian talent on-screen. In the Mary Magdalene episode, Toronto-based actor Mishka Balilty takes on the title role.

And it’s the women that drive the Daughters of Eve series – that’s the message Hecht hopes viewers take away from it. “It baffles me why they’re always taking a backseat to the men,” says Hecht. “And I think that really stuck out in every story that we explored, how powerful and how strong these women were.”

Daughters of Eve premiered on Yes TV on March 27.