Israel has a rich culture of volunteering. Volunteers are mostly young people, before or after the army, but older folks can also make a contribution. A new documentary on Hot 8, Next TV, and Hot VOD, Accidental Happiness by Lena Chaplin (who made The Trumpet in the Wadi) and Daniella Weiss examines the experiences of a group of 60+-year-olds who spent a year working to revitalize the kibbutzim along the Gaza border, which were attacked on October 7.
It’s an interesting story that reveals a great deal about the area that was attacked and the spirit and resilience of those who took on the task of rebuilding it.
When the call was released in 2024, looking for older volunteers, 800 people applied for 60 spots. Those who made the cut included hi-tech entrepreneurs (including some who had been living in the US who returned), teachers, nurses, and farmers. They worked on some of the kibbutzim that suffered the most devastating consequences of the attack, such as Kfar Aza, Nir Oz, and Nahal Oz.
Volunteers took on a variety of tasks throughout the war
The seniors took on various tasks in the region, including finding and identifying objects left in burned-out homes, which was emotionally difficult since much of this property belonged to people who were murdered; caring for crops and animals; and running medical clinics. Some left behind spouses who couldn’t commit to living like that for a year, while others volunteered as couples.
The documentary opens with a famous quote by Mark Twain, “The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up,” and the documentary shows how the volunteers lived by this motto.
The war was ongoing while they worked, and the documentary shows that the area was still being bombed and that many of them kept in mind the price that Gazans were paying on the other side of the border.
Despite the hardships of uprooting themselves, they were driven by a sense of purpose: to make and keep these places habitable for the day when the residents would be ready to return or when new people were ready to move into homes where former inhabitants were too traumatized to return. The film gives a sense of optimism about how people’s lives can be repaired and enhanced by taking action.
The big TV news this week is that the final season of Stranger Things is coming out on Netflix on November 26 in the United States and in the wee hours of November 27 in Israel. Since most fans of the show agree that every season has been better than the previous one, Stranger Things audiences have been anxiously awaiting these new episodes. Netflix is dragging out the release, and who can blame them, given that this is one of their most popular series ever (a billion hours of season four were viewed within the first month of its release in 2022). Four episodes will be released next week, three on December 25, and the finale on New Year’s Eve.
Not much is known about the new season, but there will be a time jump to 1987, and the action will return to Hawkins, Indiana, for the final showdown between the heroes and their families and the evil creatures from the world of the “upside down.”
Cast member Brett Gelman, who visited Israel last year and appeared on Eretz Nehederet as a Berkeley professor trying to prove to Jesus’s parents that they are not Jews, will be returning in the role of Murray, a journalist who is into conspiracy theories.
You can get up to speed if you’ve forgotten the end of season four by re-watching it, or any of the previous seasons. You can also see Beyond Stranger Things, a seven-episode series featuring interviews with the cast and creators, and Stranger Things: The First Shadow, a look behind the scenes from the live stage show based on the series, both of which are on Netflix.
British police drama Lynley is showing on Yes VOD and Yes LONDON, and while none of it breaks new ground, it’s very well done. It tells the story of Thomas Lynley (Leo Suter), a wealthy, movie-star-handsome, Oxford-educated detective who has been transferred to Norfolk from London after getting himself into trouble because he’s so arrogant and uncompromising. He is partnered with Barbara Havers (Sofia Barclay), a working-class detective who has grown up in the area, and while we’ve seen this kind of pairing before, somehow the actors make it enjoyable. The mystery they are trying to solve is less engaging: A vile rich guy has been murdered, and they must decide which of his ungrateful children, servants, and mistresses are the prime suspects. You will likely enjoy the banter between the leads more than the mystery itself.
A real gem is coming to Netflix on November 22: Nicole Holofcener’s 2013 movie, Enough Said, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini. It’s a romantic comedy about dating after divorce and the ways that we let other people get into our heads.
Louis-Dreyfus plays Eva, a massage therapist in California, who meets Albert (Gandolfini), who works at a museum. The two start dating and have a lot in common, especially that they both have daughters about to go off to college. But when Eva befriends Albert’s ex-wife, Marianne (Catherine Keener), not knowing at first that she was once married to him, she starts to see her boyfriend through Marianne’s eyes, and suddenly feels dissatisfied with him. The premise is a bit contrived, as rom-com plots tend to be, but while you’re watching it, this won’t bother you.
This is Louis-Dreyfus’s best big-screen role, and it was one of Gandolfini’s final appearances before his untimely death. He was so good in this part that after a few minutes, I forgot all about Tony Soprano. He was born to play quirky characters like this, and it’s a shame that he got so few opportunities to do so. Every moment he’s on screen here is wonderful.