My review of Shtisel on Netflix. Israeli drama series. Highly recommended.

I never thought I would get hooked on a drama about an Orthodox Jewish family living in Geula, Jerusalem, but I am; it's totally engrossing, the script, the storylines that deal with common issues people confront, and it gives an insight into their community which one would normally not have. The series follow the lives of  the children of Rabbi Sulem Shtisel, the patriarch of the family, played by Doval'e Glickman and Rabbi of the local Yeshiva. His youngest child is Aki, played by Michael Aloni, my favourite character because he is an aspiring artist who gets constantly put down by his over-bearing religious father. At any opportunity the father belittles him, telling him that he should follow more closely the Torah, not art, and that he should get married. 

Rabbi Shtisel, Aki, Elisheva photo courtesy of Netflix

The father is friends with the matchmaker, who is instructed to find a suitable bride for Aki. He finds a nice young woman of similar age to Aki but Aki is in love with a two times widow and single mother whose child is in Aki's classroom, she is beautiful and her name is Elisheva played by Eyelet Zurer; she wants to escape Jerusalem, her tightly packed neighbourhood, and her past, and she listens to popular music on the Sabbath, so bending the rules. The widow is a complex character who is weighted down by her dead husbands, but she is also rather independent and works in a bank. Aki's father is opposed to his love for the widow, he thinks she is too problematic. Even the widow herself is not sure about going out with Aki because she is older than him.  In a particular scene in her house she removes her wig and shows Aki her grey hair, but he doesn't care. He is a dreamer, an idealist, and throughout the series you hope that he comes out of his father's shadow,  and that he builds a stronger voice for himself, makes more art, and basically that he will be able to stand up to his father and make his own way through art.

Aki has several chance encounters in Jerusalem, with firstly an art dealer who wants him to make pictures for him which he wants to sell with his own name on, which I thought was appalling.

Aki, photo courtesy of Pinterest.

Than there is Giti, played by Neta Riskin, the daughter of Rabbi Sulem Shtisel who is married to Lippe, they have five children. Lippe Weiss, played by Zohar Strauss, goes to Argentina for work but he has some sort of crisis with his religious beliefs and he disappears. Giti Weiss thinks he is gone with another woman but it seems that Lippe see pic below, went rather through an existential crisis with the orthodox way of life in Argentina and just wanted to get away from it all, basically leaving his wife to fend for herself and her children; she is proactive and inventive in ways of getting money for her family.

Giti with her children - photo courtesy of Vertigo Magazine.

Lippe Weiss photo courtesy of Netflix.

Than there is the grandmother played by Hanna Riber in season 1, while in season 2 she is now played by Lea Koening. She has been put in a care home, and gets her first TV in the room; this causes a stir with the son Rabbi Shtisel as she is not supposed to watch TV but read religious books, according to her son. The grandmother really enjoys watching TV, she has one friend inside the care home who is wealthy, swears, and is rather prickly.

Grandmother Season 1 -  photo courtesy of Netflix.

I also liked the teenage character Ruchami played by Shira Hass (who also features in Unorthodox) who is at the receiving end of her father's decision to run away in Argentina and leave his family behind; she has to cope with her mother Giti's inner conflict towards her husband, her duties as a wife, and the good name of the family. Ruchami is strong-willed, and secretly in  love with a very studious boy, but will he be right for her? Is the studious boy capable of running a family in a practical sense? He might be studious but he could be a terrible husband, not providing for his family in the future. Ruchami is trying to find a husband for herself to get away from the problems at home with her parents; she has an idealised view of marriage, she is trying to go for someone the opposite of her father. 

Ruchami with her parents photo courtesy of Pinterest.

We see the third son of the Rabbi Shtisel, Zvi Arye Shtisel and his wife Tovi Shtisel,  how being together all the time, with kids on top, can kill any love all together. They both seem more like functional cohabitants than a happy couple. 

Men and women also sleep in separate beds, there is no nudity, no bad language, it's actually refreshing to see this. Everything is done with gestures, expressions, it's a very sensitive intimate portrait of daily life and daily squabbles with each other. The struggle between secular Israel and the religious orthodox side of it, between personal aspirations and what you are expected to do by your community and your family who follow a prescribed way of life (the Haredi customs); sometimes the two don't reconcile causing inner conflict with the characters which make it really accessible and a joy to watch. Some are also more open to secular lifestyle like Aki going to art galleries, or his friend owning smart phones and playing video games online.

This is also given strength by the flash backs, for example of Giti's meeting Lippe which make the whole story line even more painful to watch. 

There are also light humorous episodes; in one we see Rabbi Shtisel asking a non orthodox woman a lot younger than him to marry him. It is meticulously done, from the dresses they wear, to the beards and the hats. They say a blessing everytime they eat or drink. First time dating between man and woman happens in public hotel lobbies.

It is really a joy to watch. I really hope there will be a third season.

The easing of the lockdown. Write it down & let it go.

I have been painting every day in the last couple of weeks with what I have found available, so a limited range both in terms of paints and canvases, due to most shops being shut and difficulties in getting things online. I am still happy I have been able to make more art. The only shops open are the postoffice/newsagent, a couple of take away shops, supermarkets and the pharmacy. The town has got busier since the lockdown has been eased. I still go and shop in the small supermarket, hardly any queues and they have got most essentials. Now people can meet a friend at a distance while exercising, though the guidelines from the Government have been rather confusing. Several people in the Cabinet had the Coronavirus and have recovered, which is very positive. It's been an up and down couple of weeks, coming out of lockdown and seeing more people has made some people feel more anxious.

I said I was not going to use Zoom but after two months of lockdown, and my friends pestering me with it, I have finally used it and chatted with my friends abroad. I also participated in a zoom afternoon tea, a zoom meditation, a zoom workout & a zoom party! It doesn't replace face to face contact but it is useful to keep in touch. I find focusing on the screen while talking tiresome after a while.

My favourite day is Sunday when there is no building work across the road and it's quiet, it's a real treat, I can sit in the garden in peace. Builders have been working on Saturdays too, so it's been unnerving to see people working inside a house but not being allowed yourself some peace and quite during the lockdown. The sound of chainsaws.... I was thinking what are they building? Log cabins in that mansion?! Maybe they where cutting tiles.. How many bathrooms do they have? It's been going on for weeks, weekends included. 

My neighbour is convinced that the Government is trying to break us down mentally after the lockdown. I am planning to get a pair of noise cancelling headphones as well, my friend sent me some background white noise which I tried it this evening and I love it, I felt so relaxed just listening to a monotonic noisy sound.

The neighbour upstairs, nice guy, bit of an odd ball, keeps the radio on at night,  so to get some sleep can take a while. I have noticed that the noises sound a lot louder and you can get fixed on them. On Sunday when I went for a walk another walker came up to me (still at a distance) saying he was feeling depressed, said that the noises outside were driving him mad (they were doing up his road). I just told him, everything seems louder when you stay in the same small environment for hours and hours, when everything is shut, with no cars or aeroplanes which generally muffle other noises. We both agreed that a lot people in lockdown have been obsessing about things without their normal structure in place. We are stressed in different ways not knowing what is going to happen next, and having little control on our surrounding environment. The walker said he felt better by talking to me, said he had not spoken to anybody in weeks. I thanked him too, a problem shared is an easier problem to deal with.

Some of my friends have been going on and on about the same point, the same person that doesn't meet their expectations on different days. It's like the mind has gone into lockdown, into some weird stuck coping mechanism that repeats itself endlessly. You feel bad about it, you don't want to talk about your particular fixation but you can't help yourself and than you feel better when you find others have been obsessing on something as well. Then you feel you don't want to talk about it anymore but you start again the following day repeating the same exact things. 

Suddenly I find myself worrying about my neighbours' dog. He was sent away, taken by a man in a van,  he was a big loveable dog, lots of energy, maybe he was too large and energetic or was he just sent on holiday? He has not come back. I really liked him.. I wanted to volunteer to take the dog out to help them out but maybe that is not allowed by the Government! So I didn't. I mean some people think dogs are robots that are just there to catch the newspaper and they get rid of pets when it doesn't suit them anymore, when they don't behave as they want.  Pets are not for  just a couple of months but for life.

Some parents with children are enjoying the lockdown and hate the office environments, the politics that goes with it, because they don't have to commute and have more time to spend with their kids. Also people with comfortable homes who have plenty of space to self isolate and work. It just tells you in what an unequal world we live.

I always feel better when I am able to go out for a walk and I am in nature. Today was a beautiful sunny day, the air so clean. It was more crowded outside which felt weird being used to empty roads.

People will think more carefully where they go and live after this lockdown, I think they will go more for houses with space and a garden.  Somewhere comfortable, peaceful where one can self isolate in peace and work from home easily, having said that I am not sure how easy this will be due to the high population density of the UK.  I wonder if more people from London will buy houses in the countryside or near the coast, but most of the jobs are in London and a lot of people commute from far away to get to work; this needs changing so that more people can work from home or commute at staggered times.

Anyway I am grateful for my friendly neighbours in my building. It's still a beautiful sunny evening and I am still painting. My friends, some of whom have been stuck abroad, are all fine and I am grateful that we didn't get Covid19 in the autumn of 2019, and  so we avoided having a full winter of it. My best friend with cancer is better and my neighbours' black cat sits on my shoes with me in the garden, he is more friendly towards me now and he likes to be stroked; because I have been sitting more often in the garden he is getting used to me, we both enjoy each others company now.

It's Sunday I am sitting in the garden with  a cup of tea and a slice of chocolate roulade, naughty, very naughty..

Copyright 2020 Mirta Imperatori