'Kissufim': A look at a kibbutz on the Gaza border at a gentler time

Kissufim, a new Israeli drama film by Keren Nechmad, has just been released on Netflix in Israel with English subtitles – and around the world, including the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and much of Europe and Latin America. It’s a period film, set in 1977 in Kibbutz Kissufim, which is close to the Gaza border. 

Even though it takes place so many decades ago, it illuminates the background of the current war. It does so by telling an entertaining, coming-of-age story about a group of young people who come to work on the kibbutz as part of their army service.

While they are idealistic and hard-working, they also just want to have fun; they work in the fields by day but party by night. When they have a day off, they go to the beach – in Gaza. Back in those days, when Israel was still in control of the Gaza Strip, it was normal for Israelis to visit there to go for a swim, shop, and have lunch. 

But the tension of the situation today was still present then (if at a much lower intensity) and their visits to Gaza for fun become increasingly fraught. Even though it was the year that then-Egyptian president Anwar Sadat visited Jerusalem, the conflict with Gazans was a tremendous factor in the lives of citizens of border kibbutzim like this one.

The movie stars a cast of appealing newcomers, among them Swell Ariel Or, best known for The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, as well as Mili Eshet (Barren), Adam Gabay (Image of Victory), Yehonatan Vilozny (Spell Keepers, Full Speed), Lir Katz (The Malevolent Bride, Tatami), Erez Oved (Your Honor), and Tamir Ginsburg (Tehran).

The movie was actually filmed at Kissufim, where 14 people were killed by terrorists on October 7, including kibbutz members who worked closely with the film crew.

SLOW HORSES - Apple TV+

Slow Horses fans – clear your schedules. On September 4, the first two episodes of season four will be released on Apple TV+, and after that, you can watch an episode a week until the end of the season, which will come all too soon on October 9.

For those who still haven’t had the pleasure of watching Slow Horses, it’s not a Western – and there aren’t any actual horses. It’s a spy thriller series that seamlessly blends suspense and genuinely funny comedy – something so few series manage to do that you might say it’s the holy grail of television. 

Based on a series of novels by Mick Herron, the title is slang for Slough House, a place where MI5 agents are sent who have screwed up badly, but not quite badly enough to get fired. The first season opened with River Cartwright (Jack Lowden), who is the grandson of former MI5 head David Cartwright (Jonathan Pryce of Game of Thrones and Brazil), messing up an exercise in which he was supposed to prevent a simulated terror attack on the Underground. Although it wasn’t really his fault, he found himself exiled to Slough House. Given his family legacy, it was especially humiliating for him to be sent there.

The “slow horses” are there for making huge mistakes or having personality problems that have made them outcasts, or both: one has a gambling problem, another a cocaine habit, a third is a brilliant cyber sleuth but so selfish and mean that no one can bear to be in the same room with him for more than two minutes, and so. But unlike so many series where there are many glossy, forgettable young actors who blur together and you have to keep reminding yourself who they are and what they’ve done, the characters here are distinctive and feel real.

At the head of it all is Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), a gruff, rude, disgusting old guy with a wicked sense of humor not seen on television since Mad Men ended and we lost Roger Sterling, played by John Slattery. When a much higher-ranking agent says, “So, you’re in charge of the rejects?” Lamb responds, “They don’t like being called that.” She asks, “So what do you call them, then?” His reply: “The rejects.”

The thread that underlines the story every season is that while Lamb’s gross habits and abrasive personality may have gotten him banned from MI5 headquarters, which everyone calls “the Park,” he is so smart and can think so many steps ahead that the managers who sent him to Slough House constantly come calling for his advice, especially Diana (Kristen Scott Thomas), who is second desk, vying for the top spot. He’s also fiercely loyal to the agents he calls his “dogs,” slang for an agent in the field. They kind of hate him and he kind of hates them, but he has their backs – and they know it.

Just as with previous seasons, it’s a little like a John le Carre novel with comedy, and season four is even better than the previous one, and as good as the first and second. It starts out with an act of terror taking place in London – which is all I can say without revealing spoilers, because the plot is so complex. Unlike a typical series that has a primary plot and a couple of secondary stories, here everything is intertwined. I binged the new season for two days when I had to fight to make time for it – what more is there to say?

The Other Woman – Netflix and Apple TV+

A slick, silly girl-power comedy in the vein of Bridesmaids or The First Wives Club, The Other Woman is now on Netflix and Apple TV+. While it has some annoying moments, much of it is fun. It stars Leslie Mann as Kate, a Connecticut wife who discovers her venture capitalist husband (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who played Jaime Lannister on Game of Thrones) is cheating. She confronts his mistress, Carly (Cameron Diaz), a poised corporate lawyer. Carly had no idea he was married and the two bond in a way that I would guess happens in movies a lot more than in real life – and the twist is that they discover he has a much younger, clueless girlfriend, Amber (Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Kate Upton).

None of this is a spoiler, it’s all in the trailer, and if you didn’t know that the third woman was going to show up, you might not get through the scenes of Carly and Kate getting drunk together.

This is that kind of movie: where, when people need to figure things out, there is always a beach house handy – like in Grace and Frankie. It’s all strictly wish-fulfillment fantasy, with a few creative touches when they turn the tables on the cheating husband. There’s also some gross-out humor, as in Bridesmaids (also on Netflix and Apple TV+), and there are just a few scenes that don’t feature at least one cliché. But it’s done as well as this story can be, and Don Johnson of Miami Vice is perfectly cast as Diaz’s father.