Alan Parker films featured on Israeli television following his passing
'Manayak' is a gritty police drama running Sundays, Monday at 9:15 p.m.
By HANNAH BROWN‘The Commitments’(photo credit: 1991 BEACON COMMUNICATIONS CORP./COURTESY OF YES)
Israeli TV viewers were glued to all the episodes of Tehran, the KAN 11 series that recently came to an end. But if you missed it, you can still see all eight episodes for free on KAN’s website. It’s in Hebrew, Farsi and English with Hebrew subtitles. It will eventually be shown on Apple TV, but a date has not yet been set.KAN has started broadcasting a new series, Manayak (Hebrew for snitch or rat), a gritty police drama that is running Sundays and Mondays at 9:15 p.m., and all its episodes are available online after they air.Netflix is featuring some behind-bars shows, such as the documentary series Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons and Locked Up, a Spanish prison drama, which beg the question: Is there anything we need less right now?I’ve searched Netflix for something escapist but not stupid, and lately there have been slim pickings. The Players is an anthology film from Italy with interconnected stories about married life and extramarital affairs, which aims to be a bit like the savagely funny Argentinian anthology film Wild Tales, but it’s predictable at best and tedious at worst.Women of the Night is a Dutch suspense series about a former prostitute and drug addict who is currently married to the new mayor’s press spokesman, but gets drawn back into the world of elite sex parties. It is so implausible in so many ways that you’ll find yourself wondering how it is that in Amsterdam, half of the City Hall employees seem to be moonlighting as call girls.But there are two series on Netflix I’ve recommended in the past that are so much fun that they’re worth taking another look at: Call My Agent! and Jane the Virgin.Call My Agent! is a French series about a Parisian agency that handles movie actors and directors, and each episode features a cameo by a French superstar. It makes fun of the many childish stars and their whims, and also shows that the agents themselves are no less neurotic. If you’re into French cinema, you’ll see that they have dramatized some real-life gossip. And it’s a manageable length, three seasons of six episodes each.Netflix recently added the fifth and final season of Jane the Virgin, a sweet, comic story of a very determined young Latina woman in Miami, filmed in the style of a telenovela. It’s silly at times but not dumb, and the characters and cast are so engaging, you’ll wish it went on longer.Downton Abbey fans will enjoy the movie based on the series, which is no longer on Netflix but will air on Yes VOD and Cellcom TV starting August 11, on Hot Cinema 1 on August 13 at 10 p.m., and on Yes 1 on August 14 at 9:30 p.m. If you’re a die-hard fan and want to binge the series, it’s available on Amazon Prime Video.Two new documentaries about US politics are airing this week. The Swamp, an HBO documentary about members of the Freedom Caucus, a group of Republican members of Congress, is available on Cellcom TV and on Yes Docu on August 10 at 11 p.m. (also on Sting TV and Yes VOD). Immigration Nation, a Netflix series that follows immigration agents in the US, was co-directed by Israeli Shaul Schwarz, with Christina Clusiau.
The British director Alan Parker just died, and you can see one of his best films, The Commitments, on August 9 at 10 p.m. on Yes 3. The 1991 film looks at an up-and-coming band in the burgeoning music scene in Dublin. It’s both dramatic and comic as it explores the lives of the band members, who perform soul music – it has a great soundtrack – and struggle to succeed.The cast members, many of whom were newcomers and went on to acting and musical careers, are terrific. Three of the siblings who eventually formed the Corrs have small roles, as does Glen Hansard, an Irish musician who became famous internationally in the film Once.
