JNS
The two shows are “in the same jungle, but they’re different breeds. It has all the jokes that you would recognize from ‘Shtisel,’ but it also really stands in its own world,” actor Mili Avital told JNS.
Much like the loyal “Shtisel” fans from around the world, actor Sasson Gabay was yearning for a fourth season of the Israeli television drama series.
That season never arrived. But for Gabay, “Shtisel” paved the way for a more prominent role. After playing the brother of one lead character (Shulem Shtisel) and the uncle of another (Akiva Shtisel), he now stars in the “Shtisel” spin-off series.
The first season of “Kugel,” the prequel to the award-winning show, launches on Feb. 28 on the Israeli global streaming platform IZZY.
“I was hoping deeply in my heart that ‘Shtisel’ would continue,” Gabay, who plays Nuchem Shtisel, told JNS. “Would it be another season and in what form? I had a gut feeling that it was going to happen. And when they proposed the part in ‘Kugel’ to me, I immediately said yes, and I didn’t have to think twice.”
In Shtisel, Nuchem was a visitor in Jerusalem’s Haredi neighborhood of Geula. Despite his objections, Nuchem’s daughter, Libi, got engaged to her cousin, Akiva. Libi would later die offscreen between the show’s second and third seasons.
Written and directed by Yehonatan Indursky, the co-creator of “Shtisel,” “Kugel” is set years earlier in the Haredi community of Antwerp, Belgium. Nuchem is a jewelry dealer whose wife, Yides (played by Mili Avital), asks for a divorce due to his dishonesty and crooked business practices.
After Yides leaves him and their daughter Libi (played by Hadas Yaron), Nuchem spends his days trying to save his marriage and achieve his dream of being a mogul, and his nights courting a recently widowed woman who inherited a restaurant that specializes in Jerusalem-style noodle kugels. Against the backdrop of her parents’ crumbling partnership, Libi (age 22) struggles to find a suitable shidduch (“match”) and instead devotes her energy to becoming an author.
“The moral complexity of a woman who is not living the life that goes along with her core values because her husband lies—and lies a lot, and in really extreme ways—made for a very juicy character,” Avital told JNS about her part as Yides. “I was constantly uncomfortable emotionally. I wasn’t sure if I like Nuchem or dislike him, or if I believe him or don’t believe him.”
Yet her stance on the real-life Sasson Gabay is unambiguous.
“I’ve been wanting to work with Sasson for many years,” she said. “I’ve known him from the world we’re in, but I’ve never worked with him.”
She continued, “It’s just a challenge that I wanted to be part of. … As soon as I heard there was a spin-off of ‘Shtisel,’ without even knowing the name of the new show, without even knowing who was leading it, I immediately mentioned it to my agent. I said, ‘I want to do this. This sounds like exactly the kind of thing I love.’”
When confronted with Nuchem’s dishonest actions, such as selling one of her family heirlooms or approaching newly bereaved widows about paying for expensive jewelry under the false premise that their late husbands had commissioned the pieces for them, Yides experiences an array of conflicting emotions.
“On one hand, I have to live for my daughter because in that [Haredi] world, obviously, if a couple gets divorced, it affects the quality of the match they can find for their daughter,” Avital said. “But at the same time, how much do women need to give away of themselves for their family? When is it going to be OK to just care for yourself? I think that’s where Yides is at. To meet such characters that are complex, especially in a time of crisis, is super interesting.”
While acknowledging his character’s flaws, Gabay simultaneously emphasizes the attributes of Nuchem that may elicit some sympathy from viewers.
“He is forced into this situation because his wife left him,” Gabay said. “He tried his best to make Yides stay at home, but she wouldn’t stay, and he’s left alone with his daughter, who is the apple of his eye. … There’s a lot of sadness and a poetic sense in this series. Nuchem loves Libi no matter what and he will do anything for her. He will try again and fail again, but he never gives up. He’s a big survivor. He’s forgiving about the flaws of other people as he tries to forgive himself for his own flaws.”
‘The kids were running after me’
Prior to “Shtisel,” Gabay, as a secular Jew, knew about the Israeli Haredi community from afar. To enhance his personal and professional knowledge as the actor playing Nuchem, the same man who taught Gabay the Yiddish language, Shalom Eisenbach, also took him through the streets of Mea She’arim (one of the Jerusalem neighborhoods where the show was filmed) for a deep dive into Orthodox Judaism and its mannerisms.
This meant that when he came to Antwerp for “Kugel,” Gabay was much more comfortable. The community in Antwerp also contributed to that feeling. As opposed to Mea She’arim, where the “Shtisel” production team needed to hide cameras in a van due to the community’s apprehensions about filming a show in their neighborhood, the Haredim of Antwerp greeted the cast and crew with excitement.
In Mea She’arim, he shared, some people on the streets recognized him from “Shtisel” but would not admit they had watched the show. In Antwerp, “The kids were running after me and speaking to me in Yiddish,” Gabay said.
Avital, meanwhile, was intrigued by the significant presence of native Israelis within Antwerp’s Haredi community.
“I was trying to find the right accent for Yides,” she said. “How long has she been in Europe? Is she Belgian, or is she more of an Israeli? We tried to land in between.”
‘It’s more of a close-up’
“Shtisel” launched in 2013 on the Israeli broadcaster YES, becoming a worldwide phenomenon for providing insights into daily life in Haredi society. In addition to “Kugel,” the IZZY platform is now also home to all three seasons of “Shtisel.”
“As a streaming platform, we understand the transformative power of an original, exclusive drama, and we’ve been dreaming of this moment for a long time,” Nati Dinnar, co-founder and CEO of IZZY, said in a statement. “But even in my wildest dreams, I couldn’t have imagined partnering with such an incredible team on the most beloved TV brand to come out of Israel: ‘Shtisel.’”
Avital told JNS that the shows are “in the same jungle, but they’re different breeds. ‘Kugel’ has its own feel. It has all the jokes that you would recognize from ‘Shtisel,’ but it also really stands in its own world.”
The creative team on “Kugel,” Avital said, landed on a tone that’s unique to the show.
“It’s funny, but we don’t push the joke, ever,” she said. “It’s just funny because it is what it is, but we don’t play it for the drama, and we don’t play it for the joke.”
Regarding the difference between the shows, Gabay added, “‘Kugel’ is more like a legend, and it’s more psychological. It’s more a close-up of the two main characters, Nuchem and Libby, mainly about their psychological journey—how they tackle each problem in life and how they overcome obstacles.”
