Mar 23, 2026 4:45am PT

‘In Treatment’ Creator Hagai Levi Makes a Case for ‘Arthouse Television’ With ‘Etty,’ Talks Cultural Boycott of Israel

‘You punish the wrong people. As artists, we need help against this monstrous regime,' Levi told Variety

Marta Balaga

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Marta Balaga

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Hagai Levi Credit: Marie Rouge/Series Mania

Hagai Levi, reknown for “The Affair” and “In Treatment,” is testing new waters with “Etty” – a story he has wanted to tell for 10 years.

Based on Etty Hillesum’s diaries, the show stars Julia Windischbauer, Sebastian Koch, Leopold Witte, Gijs Naber and Claire Bender. Currently screened at Series Mania following its Venice premiere, it has started out as a film.

“It kept expanding. I had a three-hour film and I needed more time. The series I made in the past were very much suited to television. This one is a film split into six episodes,” he tells Variety.

While the likes of “Severance,” “Baby Reindeer” and “The Rehearsal” have certainly piqued his interest, Levi is adamant:

Popular on Variety

“There’s not enough arthouse television – and certainly not in the U.S. The Golden Age of Television is over. Very few projects that can be considered artistic attempts. You need nudity and sex. American television has become corrupt, because it indulges in brutality, violence and violence against women. They are fascinated by evil, but in doing so, they contribute to it.”

Levi isn’t really bothered by how many people will watch his new show.

“It’s about who are the people who are going to watch it. I don’t do commercial television. Every project I work on is a passion project. It was the same with ‘Scenes from a Marriage’ and ‘Our Boys’.”

He discovered Hillesum shortly after the success of “In Treatment.” “I came back from the U.S. and I was a bit depressed. I had a feeling that whatever I had achieved was going to fade away. My therapist recommended this book,” he recalls.

“For many, many people, it became a life guide, [teaching them] how to find a place inside of them that can withstand terrible things. Ultimately, it’s about doing the right thing, being a hero and understanding the meaning of solidarity.”

However, here’s comes the shocker: Hillesum, a Dutch Jewish writer, died in Auschwitz in 1943. But “Etty,” with its contemporary setting, is definitely not about the WWII.

“If you keep telling WWII and Holocaust stories in the old-fashioned way, they become anecdotes from the past. Jonathan Glazer did a great job with ‘The Zone of Interest,’ but I needed to take it away from that territory. In every pitch, I started by saying: ‘This is not a Holocaust movie. This is not a Holocaust series’.”

“My biggest concern was that all Hillesum fans, and there are many, would say: ‘What have you done to our Etty?’ So far, they feel she has come to life again, which is why I chose this form. You can imagine yourself in this situation.”

‘Etty’

Courtesy of Series Mania

Buyers like WWII stories – but Levi couldn’t care less.

“I don’t really care about ‘selling’. That’s not my thing. In one article, they described it as ‘Hagai Levi’s Holocaust series’ and I was like: ‘This is not a Holocaust series at all!’ This book isn’t a ‘Holocaust book’ either. It speaks to you as a modern person. I didn’t go into the camps [to film]: It’s obscene to do these things. In order to tell these stories, you have to show their relevance.”

While “Etty,” produced by Les Films Du Poisson and co-produced by Komplizen Serien, Topkapi Series, Arte France and Quiddity, “has nothing to do with Israel” – “it’s only European money” – Levi is aware that even though he doesn’t depend on Israeli funds, he might still be subjected to a boycott.

“I think there’s a lot of justice in a boycott. I felt O.K. with a boycott on Russia. But the problem with a cultural boycott is that you punish the wrong people. Most of the artistic community in Israel are fighting the regime, and fighting really hard,&r