A Body That Works, the new series from Keshet International about a Tel Aviv couple (Rotem Sela and Yehuda Levi) who can’t have a baby and hire a surrogate (Gal Malka), is certainly working for Netflix, which is streaming the series around the world.
On Tuesday, Netflix announced that the series is in the top 10 in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Poland, and Romania, among other countries. The series became available on the platform less than a month ago, in the original Hebrew version, and it also stars Lior Raz of Fauda as a work colleague of the character played by Sela.
The series made headlines in 2023 when its two lead actresses, Sela and Malka, shared the Best Actress Award in the International Panorama competition at the prestigious Series Mania competition in France. It was created by Shira Hadad and Dror Mishani (both of whom collaborated on the series Wisdom of the Crowd) and Shay Capon (Dumb), who also directed the series.
Following in the footsteps of other Israeli series
Other Israeli series, such as Fauda, have performed well on Netflix internationally, with the third season consistently hitting the top 10 worldwide, including in Arab countries like Lebanon. At one point in 2023, four seasons of the series were in Lebanon’s Netflix top 10, including the recently released fourth season, which was in second place on the list. The series, which features about half of its dialogue in Arabic, is about an Israeli counterterrorism unit operating in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, and Europe.
Shtisel, a series about an ultra-Orthodox family in Jerusalem, has also been popular on Netflix.