It will run Monday-Thursday at 9 p.m., also on Sting TV and on Yes VOD starting on June 6.
It’s always difficult to adapt an epic novel that spans generations, because no matter how long the movie or series runs, much will have to be omitted, and the motivations of the central characters and details of their biographies get simplified. I have not read the novel and cannot be sure whether or not the series preserves its spirit, but it does create an atmospheric portrait of early 20th-century Jerusalem (based on the five episodes released to the press).
Sometimes an adaptation actually works better if you are not familiar with the source material. For example, while I thought the adaption of Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend was well done, it did not live up to the book for me, while my friends who had not read the novel loved the HBO series. While the novel The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem spans four generations, the series has scaled it down to focus on two periods: the end of the Ottoman Empire/beginning of the British Mandate era, and from the late ‘30s up through the War of Independence.
The Jerusalem setting and the background of a Sephardi family is certainly exotic, and the series is in five languages: Hebrew, Ladino, Turkish, English and Arabic (although most of it is in the Hebrew and Ladino), with a little bit of Yiddish thrown in, languages that reflect the diversity of its setting. But while the backdrop may be exotic, to paraphrase Tolstoy’s famous “Happy families are all alike” quote, watching this series made me think of how similar the dilemmas are in all family melodramas, no matter what era or setting.
The big draw here is the cast, which features Israel’s most popular and acclaimed actors, among them Michael Aloni, who has fans worldwide from his role on Shtisel, Yuval Scharf (McMafia, New York), Hila Saada, Irit Kaplan, Itzik Cohen (Fauda), Moris Cohen and Tamir Ginsburg (Tehran). Swell Ariel Or, who plays Luna, is being promoted as Israel’s next big star. The series was created by Shlomo Mashiach, Oded Davidoff and Ester Namdar Tamam.
IT OPENS as the Turks still rule Jerusalem and Rosa Siton (Hila Saada) tries to hide her brother, whom the Turks want to draft into their army. Soon after that, Rosa, who is orphaned and cares for her younger brother, finds herself asking for a job with the matriarch of the Armoza family, Mercada (Irit Kaplan). The imperious Mercada intuits that Rosa, who keeps house for the British by day, is a hardworking survivor, and hires her to clean the Armoza store, which sells luxury items such as fancy liquor and chocolates.
Officially, it is her son, Gabriel (Michael Aloni), who is in charge, with his father, Rafael (Moris Cohen). When Gabriel falls hopelessly in love with Rohel (Yuval Scharf), a gorgeous Ashkenazi from a poor religious family who works in a soup kitchen, he asks to be released from his engagement to a young woman his parents consider suitable. They look down on the Ashkenazim, whom they see as backwards and uncouth. Eventually, Gabriel is forced into a marriage with Rosa.
In the later storyline, Aloni and Saada play themselves as parents to Luna (Swell Ariel Or), a rebellious teen whose best friend is older and dates British soldiers. Luna plays a risky game by spending time with her friend at a club frequented by the British.
The central conceit of the book was that some of the women characters were beautiful, while others, like Rosa, were ugly and could never live up to the standards of beauty expected of them. This does not come through at all, especially when Rosa is portrayed by the gorgeous Saada, even though an attempt is made to de-glamorize her.
Aloni gets to be his handsome, romantic self in the earlier period scenes, while in the later sections he has a droopy mustache and resembles Viggo Mortensen. The standout in the ensemble is Irit Kaplan as the matriarch, who gracefully personifies a powerful woman who pulls the strings but makes the men around her think they are in charge.
There is no way to discuss the plot further without revealing spoilers, but you can already tell if this series is for you. Yes Studios is hoping it will be the next Israeli series to become a worldwide hit, and its trailer, inexplicably, features a slow cover of the Simon and Garfunkel song “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme,” which has no connection to the series, either musically or any other way. The actual series has a beautiful soundtrack filled with Sephardi melodies that you would think would be sufficiently alluring for a trailer.
There is enough sex and passion here for audiences around the world to enjoy the series, whether or not they understand the intricacies of the Sephardi-Ashkenazi divide in Jerusalem or the stigma of Jewish girls getting romantically involved with British soldiers. However, the more you understand the background, the more you will enjoy it.