We’ve been hoping to see Michael Aloni in more English-language shows ever since he appeared in HBO’s “Scenes from a Marriage” — and our prayers, I’m happy to say, will soon be answered.
Aloni is about to star in a very Jewish Hulu show, “We Were the Lucky Ones.” Based on a book of the same name by Georgia Hunter, it tells the story of the Polish Jewish Kurc family and how they survived the Holocaust. The tale, which spans six years and five continents, is based on the real lives of Hunter’s family.
The show was first announced earlier this year, and Jewish actress Joey King will be executive producing as well as starring as the youngest Kurc sibling, Halina.
News is slowly trickling in about the cast of this anticipated limited series, and it just keeps getting better and better. Aloni, beloved Israeli heartthrob and “Shtisel” and “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem” star, will take on the role of Selim, who runs a research lab in the city of Radom.
What’s even more exciting is that Aloni will be reunited with Hadas Yaron, aka Libby, his wife from “Shtisel.” The two will once again play a married couple, with Yaron playing Selim’s wife Mila, who is also one of the Kurc siblings. Mila, who studied classical music, gives birth to the couple’s first child, Felicia, shortly before the war breaks out.
“Happy to be a part of this with such a talented group of humans,” Aloni wrote on Instagram.
“Unorthodox” star Amit Rahav will play the youngest brother Jacob, a photographer enamored with his high school sweetheart, Bella (Eva Feiler of “The Crown”). Israeli TV and movie legend Lior Ashkenazi will play family matriarch Sol, opposite Robin Weigert (“Deadwood,” “Sons of Anarchy”) who plays Nechama, the family’s beloved matriarch. Weigert is Jewish, and her father’s family escaped Germany in 1938 during the rise of Nazism.
Logan Lerman will play middle child Addy, an adventurer and engineer who lives in Paris at the opening of the war and is launching a promising career as a composer. Lerman is also about to star in season two of “Hunters,” which is premiering next month.
Henry Lloyd-Hughes will play Genek, a lawyer and the charming oldest Kurc sibling, and Moran Rosenblatt (“Fauda,” “Hit & Run”) will play his wife, Herta. Sam Woolf (who played Prince Edward in “The Crown” — not to be confused with the popular Jewish musician of the same name) will play Adam, a quiet and gifted architect who is the object of Halina’s affections.
With a star-studded, incredibly Jewish cast and an amazing team including filmmaker Thomas Kail, this is definitely my most anticipated Jewish show of 2023. Or 2024? A release date hasn’t been announced, and the wait is definitely going to be hard for this one.
