Seeing Ourselves on Screen: 

Exploring the Relationships of Shtisel  

A Conversation with Yehonatan Indursky, Co-Creator of Shtisel and Avital Levin, Director of Education for Shalom Task Force about the show’s portrayal of Orthodox-Jewish characters, communities, and the relationships that move us

An award-winning writer and director, Yehonatan Indursky is a graduate of the elite ultra-Orthodox Ponevezh Yeshiva, and later a top alum of the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film School. He wrote and created, with Ori Elon, the esteemed drama series Shtisel, which won 17 Israeli Academy of Television awards. The series is currently an international hit on Netflix. His full-length documentary “Ponevezh Time,” was nominated for Best Documentary Film at the Israeli Academy Awards. “Driver” (2018), his first full-length film, won the Israeli Critics Award. Indursky wrote and directed the series Autonomies, which received rave reviews and won Reflet d’Or for “Best International Television Series” in the Geneva International Film Festival. Autonomies imagines an ultra-Orthodox autonomy in Jerusalem that is surrounded by a wall, and operates strictly in accordance with Halachic laws. Indursky’s short film, “The Cantor and the Sea,” won the best director prize in Jerusalem Film Festival 2015.