Munich: The Edge of War transports viewers into the realm of the imagination, asking them to imagine two “what if” moments in European history. What if Britain and France had steadfastly resisted German aggression and refused to hand over the Sudetenland on a silver platter to Adolf Hitler? And what might have happened in Europe had […]
Several years before the Israeli television drama Shtisel took Israel by storm, Srugim was drawing in a multitude of viewers. Shtisel and Srugim ran from 2013 until 2021 and from 2008 until 2012 respectively. They unfolded in Jerusalem and were about the everyday lives of religiously observant Israelis. While Shtisel’s main characters were ultra-Orthodox Jews, Srugim […]
Four new episodes have been added to The Club, the Turkish telenovela currently streaming on Netflix. There has been no word as yet whether additional ones are in the works. The first few minutes of the newest episode unfold in 1942, when the Turkish government imposed a demonstrably unfair wealth tax on Christians and Jews. […]
World War II was a titanic struggle that raged on land, the high seas and in the air. Its battles unfolded in Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific. They were voluminously documented by an armada of expert cinematographers, judging by World War II in Color: Road To Victory, which is currently being streamed on Netflix. […]
The Girl From Oslo, an Israeli-Norwegian co-production currently streaming on Netflix, is a topical thriller set in Jerusalem, the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip and Oslo. Unfolding in English, Hebrew, Norwegian and Arabic in ten episodes of about 30 minutes each, it is both thoughtful and entertaining, a fairly rare combination in television dramas. Revolving around […]
The Club, a six-part Turkish Netflix drama set in Istanbul during the 1940s and 1950s, portrays Turkey’s Jewish minority soberly and frankly. It highlights the positive and exposes the negative, providing viewers with a reasonably nuanced picture of Jews in a Muslim society. Matilda Aseo (Gokce Bahadir), the main character, is a Sephardi Jew whose […]
Switzerland is renowned for its delectable chocolate bars and candies, precision-made watches, exquisite ski resorts and magnificent alpine scenery. Having visited the country several times, I can attest to its superlative qualities. Switzerland’s dark side is far less evident, but it emerges compellingly in Mike Shaerer’s six-part television series, Labyrinth of Peace, which will be screened […]
It was the least conceivable assignment these American Jewish soldiers expected to receive as World War II raged. Having enlisted in the U.S. armed forces to fight Nazi Germany on the battlefield, they found themselves instead in a secluded camp in Virginia interrogating captured German prisoners of war and scientists and engineers. Most of the […]
Shots rang out in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem neighborhood on a winter night in 1986, prompting a resident to call the police. Arriving to investigate, Avi Samuel entered a two-storey building and stumbled upon a nightmarish scene. Nissim Cohen, 44, and his wife, Leah, 40, had been brutally murdered in their bed. Judging by their gruesome […]
Netflix is currently presenting an eclectic selection of Palestinian feature films and shorts under the rubric of Palestinian Stories. It’s a definite sign of the times, underscoring the strides the Palestinian cause has made in recent years. I watched one feature-length movie, Salt Of This Sea, and two shorts, The Crossing and Ave Maria, all of […]