She may look wonderful, but the documentary series about the Defense Forces patrol is very disappointing - voila! Culture

It's been a long time since we talked about men in uniform.

From "Mittal General Patrol" (Photo: Courtesy of Aviram Halevi)

Omri Essenheim and Gilad Tokatli know how to make a television docu at the highest level, from the content to the form.

With comprehensive investigation, stunning photography, accomplished interviewees and wonderful editing.

They did this when they worked together on the "Ovda" program and on other occasions.

Precisely for that reason, it's such a shame that their talent is being wasted on "Mittal Patrol", the new series they created that aired this week at the same time on HOT8 and Network 13. It's important to clarify: this series, which as you can understand from its name deals with the behind the scenes of the elite military unit, looks great And it deserves a lot of stylistic compliments. But actually it is very disappointing, and avoids any position or conclusion or critical external view. What are we left with? Broadcast another service in the television factory of Hebrew militarism. It's really been a long time since we talked about men in uniform.

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He even came to reminisce in the abandoned cruiser base.

Netanyahu from "Mittal Defense Patrol" (Photo: Amir Turkel)

The documentary series opens with a slide announcing that three of the last six prime ministers of Israel, as well as all the current heads of the security agencies, are veterans of the patrol - and that this statistic has no precedent in the world.

This figure is interesting in itself, but the series, at least in the three episodes sent to journalists, does not analyze it at all or ask itself what caused it.

Instead, it is unfolded through countless talking heads - countless men, of course, and alongside them a number of spokespeople who can be counted on one hand - key events in the history of the unit (Operation Entebbe, of course, the Tzalim disaster, various incidents), and various issues (the training and the POW workshop, the loneliness of the commanders , the recruitment biased in favor of Ashkenazim, the intrigues between the officers and the spirit of the unit).

Osenheim is there and asks the questions, but he does not assume the role of narrator, and in any case there is no overall narrative or, unfortunately, a chronology, which makes "Mittal Patrol" more of a collage based on recalling memories - however interesting they may be - than a valuable document. With all due respect for the rare glimpse of what has been hidden for many years behind a code of silence, it is not enough.

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To the full article

does not take on the role of narrator.

Omri Osenheim (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Along with the reconstructions, the archival photos and those stories that usually remain in the shadows, two things are very impressive in "Mittal Patrol": the truly accomplished collection of interviewees, which includes alongside Netanyahu, Bennett and Barak also a host of past and present ministers and officials; and the investment in photography, which is reflected for example Conducting some of the interviews in the old and abandoned base of the unit, which strengthens the clouds of nostalgia that accompany the series (most of the interviews and conversations deal with the 70s to 90s, and it seems that the 21st century is almost completely absent from it). This is a nice metaphor for the gap between the glory of the past and its wretched shadow in the present.

For those who are not fans of military mythology (a non-esoteric sector in Israel), what is interesting in the series is what emerges beneath the stories of heroism: the places where ethos, codes and arrogance meet with failure, sometimes human failure and sometimes military failure. The series devotes a lot of time to these points , and it will be said to her credit - but even in this framework, her gaze ultimately remains a fan.

On the sidelines, the rise of such a series, precisely now, at such a burning moment in Israeli society, is an almost puzzling phenomenon.

Is this the story that is currently burning to tell?

At this moment, watching "Mittal Patrol: The Operations, The Secrets, The People" mainly raises one question: Who cares?

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• elite forces

• Omri Osenheim

• Gilad Toktali