EXCLUSIVE: Fans of Israeli TV were handed an early Chanukah gift on Wednesday when broadcaster Yes and Fremantle revealed they had cooked up a prequel to hit drama series Shtisel.
Just as crucial a cog in the Kugel machine is Izzy, an Israeli streaming platform that has taken rights to the prequel and will air the show from early next year outside of Israel.
“Everyone wanted to keep this brand alive,” said Nati Dinnar, an Israeli TV vet who founded Izzy in 2020 and has since landed global rights to both Kugel and Shtisel.
Kugel has already launched locally on Yes and yet the majority of its global fanbase and industry only learned of its existence 48 hours ago. Set several years earlier than Shtisel, Kugel moves to Antwerp, Belgium, where Shulem Shtisel’s brother Nuchem and his daughter Libi are making their way in life, with plenty bumps along the way. When Nuchem’s wife Yides (Mili Avital) finally tires of his swindling and says she wants a divorce, their family life is thrown into disarray. The pair entered the Shtisel universe in Season 2, with Libi falling in love with and eventually marrying her cousin, Akiva Shtisel.
Dinnar was not directly involved with the creative behind Kugel, which was led by Shtisel co-creator Yehonatan Indursky, but Izzy was brought on board early in the process. He says a prequel makes sense as some characters who had departed the later seasons of Shtisel would not be able to appear yet “when you go back in time, everyone is alive and kicking.”
Dinnar hailed the vote of confidence in Izzy shown by Fremantle, which opted for his streamer over deep-pocketed U.S. players like Netflix and Amazon, both of which have held Shtisel rights in the past. He posited that My Brilliant Friend seller Fremantle, which owns Kugel producer Abot Hameiri, may not even have approached these big players to partner on the show and did not feature Kugel in its catalog at the recent MIPCOM Cannes. Reps from Fremantle were unavailable for comment.
Izzy grabbed Shtisel rights a little while ago and Dinnar said this has been a “success” off the back of the strong performance of older Israeli series featuring a similar authored tone such as Eliezer Shapiro and Havvah Deevon’s Srugim. “When the Netflix agreement ended we were offered Shtisel and I immediately said yes,” he added. “I knew most of my subs had already watched it on Netflix but I just thought it was right for the positioning. We were saying, ‘This is where Israeli content should be’.”
Kugel, Dinnar added, works because of the powerful qualities possessed by leads Sasson Gabai and Hadas Yaron. “Sasson doesn’t need text to act,” he added. “He can do so much with his facial expressions and it’s truly amazing how he is able to do that from the first scene. You can see with his face he tells the whole story without saying anything.”
Furthermore, Kugel brings a dose of added “international appeal” with its European relocation. The team is in the process of arranging global premieres in New York and Brussels. A splashy Israeli premiere was attended by the likes of the son of former Israeli President Shimon Peres.
Mission statement
Nati Dinnar
Izzy’s mission statement is to “enhance the world’s relationship with Israel through entertainment, help talent and find an audience in the world.” The October 7 tragedy left Dinnar “needing a few months to get my head straight,” he explained, yet once some time had passed he felt “we have an obligation to make sure Israeli content has the opportunity to be seen around the world, not to be dependent on executives at international platforms making big decisions.”
Current affairs shows like Uvda have since been picked up by Izzy along with October 7 docs like Sheryl Sandberg’s Screams Before Silence.
“Our mission has been given a boost and that’s why I was excited about Kugel because it expedites everything,” added Dinnar. “If something gets picked up by Netflix then that’s great but what about the hundreds of shows being made here that we know could have an audience.”
Izzy doesn’t reveal subs numbers but Dinnar said audiences in more than 60 countries have subscriptions, with the majority in the U.S. It has been given a boost of late with the introduction of French, Portuguese and Spanish subtitles, hopefully allowing Izzy to burrow into dozens more territories. Kugel will have 12 language options alone.
For 2025, Dinnar wants to “expand even stronger with our target audience” while he hinted that outside investment could be incoming as the platform enters its next phase.
“The options are there,” he added. “I’m sure there will be a change in 2025. The good opportunities will show themselves and we will decide if that is the right time.”