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Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Leo Maidenberg’s Paris-based company Place du Marché Productions is developing a slate of French and international films and TV series with acclaimed talents, including Daphna Levin, the creator of the Israeli series “Euphoria,” as well as Sarah Kaminsky (“Raid Dingue”) and Leïla Sy (“Banlieusards”). Maidenberg, who launched Place du Marché in 2018 after a career in diplomacy and made his producing debut with Caroline Fourest’s politically charged action film “Sisters in Arms,” has teamed with Kim Younes at Elvie Productions on a pair of high concept Israeli series. The first title produced by the two banners is “The Truth,” a police thriller series co-written and directed by Levin, whose credits also include the original Israeli series “In Therapy.” Set in Tel Aviv, “The Truth” opens on the day of the final verdict for the most controversial murder case in Israel, 10 years after the incident which took place in a high school gym. That same day, a new murder happens in identical circumstances. Juvenile inspector Rachel Zohar, a student at the high school at the time of the first murder, must revisit her trauma to solve the case. Aurit Zamir (“Babysitter”) co-wrote the series with Levin.

EXCLUSIVE: Docaviv, the prestigious all-documentary film festival in Tel Aviv, today announced the International Competition lineup for the 25th anniversary of the event, which takes place May 11-20.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent CANNES  — Burgeoning Israeli film-TV studio Sipur and cable channel HOT, behind the original versions of “In Treatment” and “Euphoria,” are introducing at MipTV “Everybody Loves…,” a new global dating reality format. The news comes just days after France’s Mediawan Rights has pounced on international distribution of another Sipur format, “Hungry for Love,” and partners Sipur and MGM’s winning five Israeli Emmy Awards for chilling doc series “The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes.”Tel Aviv-based Sipur has also moved into post on “Bad Boy,” a scripted series from Ron Leshem, creator of the original Israeli “Euphoria” and an exec producer on its U.S version.  

Israeli actor Chaim Topol, best known for his role as Tevye in the film "Fiddler on the Roof," may have had an unexpected double life outside of acting. The actor, who passed away in March, used his VIP status as an actor to work for Mossad, according to a new interview with his family in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz.

Like Me (★★☆☆☆) makes broad, swift swings between emotional highs and lows.In short order, Tom, portrayed by newcomer Yoav Keren, bounces from a threesome with a handsome gay couple, to being informed by his widower dad Gideon (Danny Geva) that, based on some tell-tale queerness Gideon found on the kid’s phone, he’s giving Tom two weeks to get out of the house.Writer-director Eyal Kantor’s feature debut treads credible ground depicting Tom’s confusion as he processes being rejected by his emotionally distant dad. He still parties when he can with straight bestie Gilad (Mendi Barsheshet) and Gilad’s new Instagram-influencer girlfriend Noa (Roni Adler), but the hurt and anger seething beneath the smiles can surface when he least expects.During a photo shoot, Rami (Gal Amitai), a smitten photographer twice Tom’s age, directs model Tom to pour that pain out, resulting in the most persuasively raw moments of Keren’s performance.

Malina Saval Associate Editor, Features Two years ago, Israeli singer-songwriter Hadar Sopher was in a long-distance relationship that went suddenly awry. “My girlfriend was supposed to catch a train to come for the weekend, and she called me and said, ‘Yo, I’m sorry, I’m not gonna go on the train,’” recalls Sopher of that fateful phone call. “She said, ‘We need to break up. I’m really sorry.’ It was, like, 10 minutes before the train was supposed to leave. I hung up the phone and I was very confused. I felt horrible. I was a mess. And I just didn’t find my closure. I tried to move on, but I was haunted by questions. I just felt like I was constantly thinking about the situation and stuck in some kind of a loop. And then I just woke up in the middle of the night and started to write this song.”

If you are beginning to think about jetting off for some summer sun, then leading low-cost carrier, Pegasus Airlines, strives to make travelling abroad as smooth as possible.

Ivanka Trump is wishing her son the best birthday ever. In a new Instagram post, Ivanka shared various images of her youngest son over the years and wrote him a sweet message.Ivanka Trump looks sporty as she steps out with her son in MiamiIvanka Trump attends sunrise prayers at the Western Wall with her family: See PicsA post shared by Ivanka Trump (@ivankatrump)The post shows various photos of Theo and his family over the years, including a photo of himself, Ivanka and his father Jared Kushner as he holds up a baseball trophy.

Our Boys creator Hagai Levi has said he was arrested briefly during a protest in Tel Aviv yesterday.

SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the first three episodes of Apple TV+’s Extrapolations.

Decades of love! James Van Der Beek and wife Kimberly Van Der Beek (née Brook) have been a swoonworthy pair for more than 10 years.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Israel’s Yaron Shani, best known for his feature debut “Ajami,” nominated for the Best International Feature Oscar in 2010, is presenting his debut television series, “Innermost,” at Series Mania. Variety is unveiling an exclusive first look at the series, which world premieres March 20 at the prominent television event unspooling in Lille, France over March 17-24. The six-episode limited series, world premiering in Series Mania’s International Panorama section, follows three characters whose lives intersect. Among them is a police officer, played by Eran Naim, a former cop himself, who first appeared in “Ajami.” The second is an upcoming writer who struggles to recover from a traumatic experience, while the third is a young aspiring musician who chafes against his parents’ wish to do his duty and join the military service, mandatory in Israel.

Former Celtic head of football operations Nicky Hammond has landed a new role in Israel after being appointed Senior Football Advisor for Hapoel Tel Aviv.

Israeli actor Chaim Topol, known for his iconic role of Tevye in the film "Fiddler on the Roof," has died at the age of 87. A cause of death was not revealed, however his son told the Israeli press last year that his father was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.  Raised in Tel Aviv and revered as a top actor in his native land, Topol appeared in over 30 movies across Israel and the United States.

Carmel Dagan Chaim Topol, who became professionally known solely by his last name in a career that included starring in “Fiddler on the Roof” on stage and screen and co-starring in the James Bond movie “For Your Eyes Only” and the sci-fi film “Flash Gordon,” died Thursday in Tel Aviv after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 87 years old.Topol’s death was confirmed by Israel’s president Isaac Herzog, who described him as a “gifted actor who conquered many stages in Israel and overseas, filled the cinema screens with his presence and especially entered deep into our hearts.” Topol began his long association with the starring role of Tevye the milkman in the musical “Fiddler on the Roof” in 1967, appearing in the West End production, which ran for 2,030 performances. He starred in Norman Jewison’s 1971 film version, which carried a budget estimated at $9 million and garnered a domestic gross of $80 million. The movie was nominated for eight Oscars, including best picture and best actor for Topol. It won for cinematography, sound and music.

Chaim Topol, an Israeli actor best known for his role as Tevye in the film version of Fiddler on the Roof, died Thursday at age 87 in Tel Aviv after a multi-year battle with Alzheimer’s.

Chaim Topol has sadly passed away at the age of 87.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian star author Robert Saviano, whose mob exposé “Gomorrah” spawned both Matteo Garrone’s eponymous prizewinning movie and the groundbreaking crime series that plays stateside on HBO, is making his directorial debut. Saviano will direct “I’m Still Alive,” an animation adaptation of his graphic novel illustrated by Israeli artist Asaf Hanuka (“Waltz With Bashir”). “Still Alive” examines the anti-mob activist’s life under armed guard since being forced to live with police protection shortly after 2006 when Saviano’s account of the inner workings of the Neapolitan Camorra crime syndicate was published. Just like Saviano’s graphic novel, “I’m Still Alive” will feature illustration’s by Hanuka, an Eisner-winning cartoonist who is known, besides “Bashir,” for his autobiographical strips “The Realist” and for graphic novel “The Divine.”

Malina Saval Associate Editor, Features With “Fleishman is in Trouble,” Taffy Brodesser-Akner has sparked a wave of nostalgia for viewers who, like the FX limited series’ three main characters, Toby, Libby and Seth, met during a study abroad program in Israel. Whether it was Hebrew U. in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv U.—or Bar Ilan U., where Brodesser-Akner spent her junior year of college— the TV adaption of the best-selling novel is not only an excavation of divorce and parenthood in the modern age, but a vessel through which fans of the show can relive one of the most impressionable periods of their early twenties, that period during which they left America, nurtured their Jewish identity in a foreign country and forged relationships that stretched into their adulthoods. 

anti-Semitic neo-Nazi protesters targeted the musical “Parade,” Mayor Eric Adams took the stage before Thursday night’s performance to declare the theater “is not a place where hate lives.”“We have the largest Jewish population outside of Tel Aviv,” Adams said as he addressed the audience at Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre.“And when you come out and really cross-pollinate with ideas and culture, that’s the beauty and that’s the symbol of New York City.”He continued: “When we fill a theater, we send a message out there that this is not a place where hate lives.”The Tony-winning “Parade” stars “Dear Evan Hansen” actor Ben Platt, 29, and Micaela Diamond, 23, of “The Cher Show.” Both are Jewish-Americans.A post shared by Parade on Broadway (@paradebway)Set in 1913, the Broadway musical is inspired by Jewish factory boss Leo Frank, who was wrongfully convicted of raping and murdering 13-year-old employee Mary Phagan.After his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, Frank was kidnapped from his cell and lynched by an anti-Semitic mob.Following Frank’s murder, evidence from the case pointed to Jim Conley, the factory’s janitor, as the actual killer.

Two days after about a dozen neo-Nazis harrassed ticketholders and ticketbuyers outside the Broadway venue where Parade had begun previews, New York Mayor Eric Adams addressed an audience at the musical last night, saying, “When we fill a theater, we send a message out there that this is not a place where hate lives.”