Published: 27 June 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
The Lesson, now available to Australian audiences, shows the messy politics of the Israeli classroom – and of Israel itself.
The Lesson is a powerful and compelling drama that doesn’t shy from showing Israel’s uglier side.
The show is inspired by an incident in 2014 when a right-wing 12th-grader in Kiryat Tivon, in northern Israel, complained about the “leftist views” of her civics teacher, Adam Verete, who dared question the morality of the Israel Defence Forces and the very idea of a Jewish state.
He survived a school disciplinary hearing over the matter, but lost his job a few months later due to “budget cuts.” The whereabouts of the right-wing student, Sapir Sabah, are unknown, but it would be no surprise to learn that she’s now running the country.
In the six-part dramatisation created by Deakla Keydar, the student is a bolshi overweight firebrand named Lianne, brilliantly played by Maya Landsmann.
Keydar was determined not to demonise anyone, and Lianne is a fully-fleshed character who makes the audience have sympathy with her racist views.
The show is fearless in its representation of modern Israel, though Keydar feels it has already been superseded by the ugliness of Israel's far-right government. In fact, she says, when people praise her for the show’s topicality and relevance, she's quick to correct them. What felt “completely psycho” a few years ago now feels like the good old days, she says.
The Lesson was a huge hit when it was broadcast in Israel last year and won best series and best actress awards at 2022’s Canneseries TV festival in France. It can be viewed in Australia on SBS or ChaiFlicks.
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The show putting Jewish supremacism on prime-time TV (Haaretz)
Photo: Maya Landsmann in The Lesson (Boaz Yehonatan Yaakov)
