Yehoram Gaon is one of the most beloved and celebrated Israeli entertainers of all time, but if you are an English speaker, you may have heard his name but not know much about him.
Both those who would like to learn about his life and those who already know his work will enjoy the new documentary about him, Tonight with Yehoram Gaon, which will be shown on September 4 on both Hot 8 and Yes Docu at 9:15 p.m. and which will be available on these channels’ VOD platforms, as well as Sting TV and Next TV.
The movie, which was directed by Kobi Faraj and Morris Ben-Mayor, was the opening film at the Docu.Text Festival at the National Library of Israel last month.
Gaon, 85, is one of the last surviving members of a legendary generation of entertainers. He has released dozens of albums and is best known for classic Israeli songs such as Naomi Shemer’s “I Have Not Loved Enough.” These songs are shown in clips from performances and films, and in some sections of the film, Gaon sings new versions of them, his melodious voice remaining strong.
The movie, which features a great deal of rare archival footage, chronicles his life from his childhood in Jerusalem as the son of Turkish and Yugoslav immigrants through his success in the IDF’s Nahal Entertainment Troupe, where he performed alongside Arik Einstein and many other singers.
After his army service, he formed a trio with Einstein and Benny Amdursky and then went on to a solo career. The film includes many performance clips from all eras of his career, including a performance of the song “Masochism Tango” by Tom Lehrer in Hebrew.
He has had a high-profile acting career on both the big and small screens and in the theater.
The movie also details his sometimes stormy personal life, including a romance he had with Italian actress Pier Angeli, who acted with him in the war drama Every Bastard a King, and features clips of his performances in the films Operation Thunderbolt (in which he portrayed Yonatan Netanyahu) and Kazablan.
It’s gossipy and fun, which makes it a must-see for anyone interested in Israeli culture.
Drama series
A new drama series on Netflix starring Michael Aloni (Shtisel, The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem) called AMIA: el fin de la verdad looks at the bombings of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992, where 29 people were killed, and the AMIA, a Jewish community center in that city, in 1994, where 85 were murdered. The AMIA bombing was the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentina’s history.
Aloni plays a Mossad agent who loses someone close to him in the first bombing and teams up with Gisela (Malena Sánchez) to find out the truth. Their search leads them to uncover a complex web of espionage and pits them against the Argentinian authorities, who try, at times, to impede their investigation. Aloni radiates star quality as the troubled agent who is willing to risk everything.
There are still open questions concerning the perpetrators of these attacks, and just last year, an Argentinian court ruled that Iran was behind the 1994 attack and that it was carried out by Hezbollah.
If you’re interested in more espionage, you might want to check out the French series The Bureau, all the episodes of which are being rereleased on Hot. The series ran from 2015 to 2020 and was very popular, inspiring the 2024 English-language remake, The Agency: Central Intelligence, starring Richard Gere.
The Bureau is a more character-driven, tasteful series than most spy thrillers, and it looks deeply into the psyches of the characters who are agents, notably the main hero, Malotru (Mathieu Kassovitz, the well-known writer/director/actor), who struggles to connect with his daughter while keeping his work life shrouded in secrecy. It takes a few episodes to really build up suspense about the operations the characters work on, and you might want to watch it with a glass of wine; most of the characters prefer red.
New movies and series
I wasn't looking forward to watching I Fought the Law, a new fact-based drama series on Yes VOD and Yes London, because it sounded grim, but the show is so well done, it got me hooked immediately.
It stars popular British television star Sheridan Smith as Ann Ming, a British woman whose daughter was murdered in 1990. After the police bungled the initial investigation, insisting for weeks that her daughter likely just decided to take off, they arrested a suspect, who was acquitted.
When clear evidence came to light after the acquittal pointing to his guilt, he couldn’t be retried because of a centuries-old law prohibiting double jeopardy. That was the law that Ming fought against, and she was eventually awarded an MBE for getting it changed.
Even when you know all of this going in – and British audiences certainly know about it, thanks to the publicity surrounding the case and a memoir by Ming that became a bestseller – watching the drama unfold is still riveting, especially thanks to Smith’s very relatable performance.
The Thursday Murder Club, a new movie now streaming on Netflix, could be described as “Only Murders in the British Assisted-Living Facility,” but despite its all-star cast, which features Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, and Ben Kingsley, it is arch and predictable. If you’re looking forward to the new season of Only Murders in the Building, though, you only have a few days to wait, since it starts streaming on Disney+ on September 9.
The podcasting trio of Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez will be joined again by Meryl Streep and some new cast members, including Christoph Waltz and Renée Zellweger, in a season in which the Mafia and several billionaires get involved in the crime-prone building.
While you’re waiting, you can watch Martin play opposite Goldie Hawn in The Out-of-Towners on Disney+, an adaptation of a Neil Simon play. It tells the story of a suburban couple’s misadventures in the urban jungle of New York City, and while Martin gets to do some funny shtick here and there, it’s way over the top from the very beginning.
Disney+ also offers the John Hughes comedy Planes, Trains & Automobiles, where Martin again portrays a straitlaced guy who has to travel with a crazed salesman portrayed by John Candy to make it home for Thanksgiving. It’s also over-the-top, but Martin gets to be funnier than he is in The Out-of-Towners.