{"id":32186,"date":"2026-03-23T12:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T12:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/32186\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T12:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T12:42:10","slug":"in-treatment-creator-hagai-levi-on-etty-boycott-of-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/32186\/","title":{"rendered":"‘In Treatment’ Creator Hagai Levi on ‘Etty,’ Boycott of Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tHagai Levi<\/a>, reknown for \u201cThe Affair\u201d and \u201cIn Treatment,\u201d is testing new waters with \u201cEtty<\/a>\u201d \u2013 a story he has wanted to tell for 10 years.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBased on Etty Hillesum\u2019s diaries, the show stars Julia Windischbauer, Sebastian Koch, Leopold Witte, Gijs Naber and Claire Bender. Currently screened at Series Mania<\/a> following its Venice premiere, it has started out as a film.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt kept expanding. I had a three-hour film and I needed more time. The series I made in the past were very much suited to television. This one is a film split into six episodes,\u201d he tells\u00a0Variety.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the likes of \u201cSeverance,\u201d \u201cBaby Reindeer\u201d and \u201cThe Rehearsal\u201d have certainly piqued his interest, Levi is adamant:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s not enough arthouse television \u2013 and certainly not in the U.S. The Golden Age of Television is over. Very few projects that can be considered artistic attempts. You need nudity and sex. American television has become corrupt, because it indulges in brutality, violence and violence against women. They are fascinated by evil, but in doing so, they contribute to it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tLevi isn\u2019t really bothered by how many people will watch his new show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s about\u00a0who\u00a0are the people who are going to watch it. I don\u2019t do commercial television. Every project I work on is a passion project. It was the same with \u2018Scenes from a Marriage\u2019 and \u2018Our Boys\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe discovered Hillesum shortly after the success of \u201cIn Treatment.\u201d\u00a0\u201cI came back from the U.S. and I was a bit depressed. I had a feeling that whatever I had achieved was going to fade away. My therapist recommended this book,\u201d he recalls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFor many, many people, it became a life guide, [teaching them] how to find a place inside of them that can withstand terrible things. Ultimately, it\u2019s about doing the right thing, being a hero and understanding the meaning of solidarity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, here\u2019s comes the shocker: Hillesum, a Dutch Jewish writer, died in Auschwitz in 1943. But \u201cEtty,\u201d with its contemporary setting, is definitely not about the WWII.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf you keep telling WWII and Holocaust<\/a> stories in the old-fashioned way, they become anecdotes from the past. Jonathan Glazer did a great job with \u2018The Zone of Interest,\u2019 but I needed to take it away from that territory. In every pitch, I started by saying: \u2018This is not a Holocaust movie. This is not a Holocaust series\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy biggest concern was that all Hillesum fans, and there are many, would say: \u2018What have you done to our Etty?\u2019 So far, they feel she has come to life again, which is why I chose this form. You can imagine yourself in this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Etty\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Series Mania<\/p>\n

\n\tBuyers like WWII stories \u2013 but Levi couldn\u2019t care less.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t really care about \u2018selling\u2019. That\u2019s not my thing. In one article, they described it as \u2018Hagai Levi\u2019s Holocaust series\u2019 and I was like: \u2018This is not a Holocaust series at all!\u2019 This book isn\u2019t a \u2018Holocaust book\u2019 either. It speaks to you as a modern person. I didn\u2019t go into the camps [to film]: It\u2019s obscene to do these things. In order to tell these stories, you have to show their relevance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile \u201cEtty,\u201d produced by Les Films Du Poisson and co-produced by Komplizen Serien, Topkapi Series, Arte France and Quiddity, \u201chas nothing to do with Israel<\/a>\u201d \u2013 \u201cit\u2019s only European money\u201d \u2013 Levi is aware that even though he doesn\u2019t depend on Israeli funds, he might still be subjected to a boycott.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of justice in a boycott. I felt O.K. with a boycott on Russia. But the problem with a cultural boycott is that you punish the wrong people. Most of the artistic community in Israel are fighting the regime, and fighting really hard,\u201d he states.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOver the last three years, we have been on the streets fighting this government, trying to do whatever we can. People who want to boycott [Israel] need to be much more selective. Check who you are working with \u2013 I wouldn\u2019t want to work with a Putin supporter either. Do a little research, find out where the money comes from and whether they support the occupation. But punishing the whole artistic community is problematic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe adds: \u201cPeople are lazy. We don\u2019t want to do the work and just put labels on things. As Israeli artists, we need help against this monstrous regime. Boycotting actually weakens this community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEtty\u2019s act of solidarity, and her refusal to use her privilege, still touches him very deeply. Even though it doesn\u2019t quite align with modern sensibilities or the tendency to put oneself first.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve been saying that about therapy for years: it doesn\u2019t address morality, and it should. You should feel good about yourself, but you should also be a good person. I grew up in a religious family and would get up in the morning, thinking about what\u2019s the right thing to do. It stayed with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continues: \u201cIt\u2019s not enough to just feel. Etty is going through a spiritual transformation, but so many people do that. They go to India, do yoga. That\u2019s great, but they should also think about improving the world, instead of sitting in top of the mountain all their lives. Do something for others with all these insights you\u2019ve gained.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJulia Windischbauer and Sebastian Koch in \u2018Etty\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Series Mania<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hagai Levi, reknown for \u201cThe Affair\u201d and \u201cIn Treatment,\u201d is testing new waters with \u201cEtty\u201d \u2013 a story…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[14812,14813,14814,37,14815],"class_list":{"0":"post-32186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-etty","9":"tag-hagai-levi","10":"tag-holocaust","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-series-mania"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116278548499046599","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}