"Models" reveals the ugly and rude face of the fashion industry - voila! culture

Just looks like a yellowish docu-reality.

"Models" (Photo: Ohad Romano)

Five models from different backgrounds and at different stages of their careers open up everything in front of the cameras.

On the face of it "Models" sounds like another yellowish doco-reality, but in fact the series created by Noam Sobovitch, Ayelet Efrati and Viniv Seglovitch for Yes Doco manages to provide a new and interesting look at a field that is perceived as marginal and ridiculous.

Ariel Ben Atar (model and network star), Matan Hawai (international model), Amir Amar (beginner model and member of the Druze community), Oral Elosh (plus size model) and Johnny Napesh (model and worker at a tractor painting factory), agreed to let the camera into their lives of Sobovich, a former model himself, and very openly reveal their struggles within the fashion industry.

Unlike models who have been considered super-celebrities for decades and move relatively easily to acting and directing roles, models are an animal that the entertainment industry doesn't really know how to deal with.

The general public is also not quite sure what to think about them - on the one hand, they look like the embodiment of the male model with a chiseled body, and on the other hand, they wear make-up and walk the runway just like girls.

Something about this profession drives conservative and homophobic people out of their minds, or at best just represses them.

Have you thought about "Zoolander"?

Think again.

From "The Models" (photo: screenshot, courtesy of yes)

If, like me, all you knew about models came from "Zoolander" - Ben Stiller's cult comedy, "Models" will change your perception 180 degrees.

This is really not the reverse discrimination in the field of wages - this is one of the few professions in which men earn significantly less than women - and not even the distance from home and family (Matan is a farmer who lives in Germany while his partner's daughter is about to give birth), these are more the incessant objectification - and worse: the unapologetic - that these guys Dealing with it.

Ariel Ben Atar, probably the model who is closest to the break-in among the participants, is managed - at least at the time of the filming - by Ronen Or Zarfati, to whom the investigation "The Tube" attributed the alleged solicitation of models to pimp their bodies for money (Zarfati denied the allegations).

And indeed, "Models" touches the rough, powerful and shameless face of the fashion industry.

It seems that while the fashion world has tried to get a hold of itself and give female models a humane and decent treatment - a process that is still in the works - when it comes to male models, the sexual exploitation, humiliating treatment and predation still continue in full force.

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A new and interesting look.

From "The Models" (photo: screenshot, courtesy of yes)

"Models" is also an exciting opportunity to get to know Ronen Akerman, the successful fashion photographer who passed away just last month after a heroic fight against ALS, and whose death was widely covered.

Here he is found as a mentor to Amir Amar, a model who is trying to break through even though the Druze tribe he comes from treats his profession as an insult to the family's honor and asks him to find a "real and suitable profession for a man".

Akerman took Amir under his protection, brought him into his home and helped him with advice on the field and with photos that would help him get accepted by a large agency.

In return, Amir helped Ackerman with everyday tasks that became impossible for him.

From the outside, you can look suspiciously at the relationship between the older man and the young guy who lives in his house, but "Models" manages to present a real friendship, against all odds, in one of the least pleasant industries that no one talks about.

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• modeling