A Good Family is a Dysfunctional Family

Ariel Wolf and Gal Amitai, the newest gay couple on the Israeli television, behind the scenes of ‘A Good Family’ (Photo: Facebook)

Four siblings, one of them gay, is the central theme of the new Israeli TV series A Good Family, that premieres this Thursday in Israel and has already received the critics’ blessing. The series was co-created by Eytan Fox, whose previous feature films Yossi & Jagger and The Bubble, have gained a lot of attention and many awards at LGBT Film Festivals around the world.

Itay Segal, co-creator of the series, introduces us to the gay characters in the show. “’A Good Family’ deals with a Jerusalem family which was dissolved with the divorce of their parents, Each of the four siblings reacts differently to the divorce,” explains Segal.

“One of the four is Itamar (Ariel Wolf), a successful dancer who doesn’t believe in relationships and advocates casual sex. During the season, he meets Osher (Gal Amitai), and what begins with a one-night stand turns into a significant and challenging relationship for Itamar.”

How did you cast Itamar and Osher?

“Eytan Fox wanted to work with Ariel for a long time, and just waited for the right project. Itamar’s character was originally written completely differently, but because we really wanted Ariel for the role, we have rewritten the role for him. We saw Gal at the graduation play of the Yoram Levinstein acting school and immediately fell in love with him.”

This is the second time that Eytan and Segal have worked together. They co-wrote Yossi (the sequel to Yossi & Jagger) two years ago, which won awards at the famous Iris Prize, Cardiff’s LGBT Film Festival, and The People’s Choice Award at the Paris LGBT Film Festival. “It was a great experience,” says Itay. “At that time and even today I learn a lot about film and television from Eytan. It amuses me that I can remember myself watching ‘Florentine’, Eytan’s first TV series, and get excited. If someone had told me then that we would create a drama together, I’d think he was hallucinating.”

The trailer for “A Good Family” was also released with English subtitles. Is it because of an initial thought to make this TV show international?

“I think that Israeli television is intriguing to a lot of people around .the world. Also because of its cheap production costs. Because of that there’s a creative spark here. It’s not a coincidence that we have become a superpower in terms of exporting formats and selling screenplays. I guess someone on behalf of our production will try to interest people abroad in the story of ‘Good Family.’ The name of Eytan is renowned in the world, and I hope that will make people want to watch it.”