The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, directed by Oded Davidoff, and based on the novel by Sarit Yishai Levi, is a new TV series, previously broadcast on YES-TV in Israel and now streaming on Netflix.
What makes it so special? The fact that it is exotic, set in a different historical period, and so much of it is in Ladino (Judeo Spanish), not to mention Hebrew, Arabic, English and even some Yiddish! This is a story about the divide between Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews, between Jews and Arabs, between Jews and the ruling powers (specifically the Ottomans and then the British), and between the socialist Jews working to create a state and the right-wing Jewish underground.
The first episode sets the stage. We meet the Armoza family, a wealthy Sephardi family (of elite Spanish descent), who refuse to permit their son, Gabriel, to marry the woman he loves because she is Ashkenazi. Instead, he is forced to marry Rosa. The series moves back and forth in time, which sometimes is confusing, but overall provides a fascinating way for the viewer to discover how things evolve.
The set design is especially well-done. Architectural models are used throughout -- models
of Jerusalem, the neighborhood with the background of the walls of the Old
City, close-ups on the courtyards and streets.
As the series progressed, and the models changed, I began to really love
this choice!
The first few episodes are about Gabriel and his lusting
after the woman he loves. He is
apparently rather weak, and really can’t stop himself. In these episodes, we also see how connected
he is to his daughter, Luna, who in later episodes will become the beauty for
whom the series is titled. When she’s
young, there is a particularly touching scene of Gabriel picking lemons with
his daughter in his arms. This hints at
the close relationship that develops between the two.
The series is blessed with some humor – for example, when a
friend comes from New York with a gift of a bra for Rosa! There are lots of belly-dancing scenes,
making the whole thing rather exotic. There
are also many scenes within an Orthodox church.
And there is quite a bit of politics – Rosa’s brother becomes a Jewish “freedom
fighter” in the 1930s, making quite a bit of the story about the right-wing
underground organization, the Etzel – their violent activities and their
in-fighting.
So, with all of these elements, and plenty of drama, why
didn’t I like the series? I have been
thinking about this a great deal during the past few days, while watching the
entire season of 10 episodes, and I have concluded that the reason for this is
that the characters were not likeable.
Gabriel (played by Michael Aloni, known to viewers as Shtissel) is a
weak man; his wife Rosa is bitter as a result of finding herself in a loveless marriage; Gabriel’s mother is a manipulative woman; and Rosa’s brother is portrayed as
immature and surprisingly egotistical. These
largely unhappy characters were too “soapy” for me—they turned the series into
too much of a melodrama.
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