EspañolDori Media Group (DMG) has signed a remake rights license agreement with renowned Turkish production company, OGM Pictures, for the 45-minute-episode Israeli drama, ‘Shtisel’. OGM Pictures one of the leading production companies in Turkey (“Mi Otro Yo”, “My Home My Destiny”, “Golden Boy”), plans to produce at least 20 x episodes in the 1st season of the Turkish adaptation of ‘Shtisel’ for Star TV.
‘Shtisel’, produced by Abot Hameiri (a Fremantle company) for YES, was created and written by Ori Elon and Yehonatan Indursky. The international hit series has captured imaginations worldwide since 2013, with its rare glimpse into a secret world with its own rules and culture. The drama takes place in the world of ultra-Orthodox Jews who have preserved their culture for 5000 years with its magical, mysterious, and wise ways, unique to any other culture.
In a small apartment, on the 4th floor of a building with no elevator, with a porch overlooking the vibrant main street of the ‘Mea Shearim’ ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood, lives Akiva, a bachelor Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) with a poetic soul, along with his ageing father. They have become sort of roommates, sharing a cynical humour and much loneliness. Akiva is a shy yeshiva (Jewish religious educational institution) boy, whom we follow along with his closely-knit, argumentative family.
Just as the family is trying to marry him off, Akiva meets an older widow, Elisheva (acclaimed actress, Ayelet Zurer), living with her ten-year-old son, while Akiva’s widowed father Shulam has a little fling of his own.
We delve into the lives of the extended Shtisel family, a warm and broken Haredi family, integrated in the grand, desperate love story of Akiva and Elisheva. To top it all off, Akiva’s sister’s husband elopes to Argentina, while their grandmother goes into a municipal nursing home, discovering Latin American soap operas and a lot more besides…
Forget everything you thought you know about Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) life and prepare to be charmed.
Season One of ‘Shtisel’ won 11 awards at the Israeli TV Awards 2013, including Best Drama Series, Best Actor, and Best Script, while Season Two won six awards in the Israeli TV Awards 2015, including Best Actor and Best Actress.
In 2013, ‘Shtisel’ was the second most viewed Israeli drama on Yes Home channels and the most viewed on Yes Walla.
A third season aired in 2021, and ‘Shtisel’ has also been sold to Netflix in the USA, France, and Sweden.
Nadav Palti, CEO & President of Dori Media Group, said “For such an excellent Turkish production company to choose a format like this just goes to show how audiences from all backgrounds, be they Muslim or Jewish, or anyone else for that matter, can relate to the same family values and often fraught dynamics, significance of tradition, ceremony of food, etc., portrayed in ‘Shitsel’. At Dori Media, we believe that this universal appeal has been the driving force behind the huge success of this sensitive, compelling drama and we are extremely excited about this next step involving OGM Pictures in Turkey.”
Onur Guvenatam, Founder of OGM Pictures, Turkey, said: “As OGM Pictures, we are so pleased and honored to introduce Ömer, the Turkish adaptation of the world-famous drama series “Shtisel,” to our audience. Shtisel is a very unique format that can be adapted to almost every culture and religion. So we are very excited to present “Ömer” in harmony with our culture and traditions. We believe our audience will also enjoy watching these cultural and religious practices and their effects on our characters and relationships that are so familiar to us.”
Dikla Barkai, Shtisel Producer, Head of Drama Abot Hameiri, said: “We are very excited to see Shtisel adapted into a Turkish drama series. From the little we have seen so far, trailer only, it was possible to distinguish quite a few similar elements. It is amazing that an Israeli series that tells a story about an ultra-Orthodox family in the ultra-orthodox world of ‘Mea Shearim’ in Jerusalem, looks so similar even when it is adapted into a drama series about Muslims in Turkey. It only emphasizes the strong human element in the series, which ultimately transcends religion and social affiliation. Eventually, we are all the same.