Interview with Dana International (Walla)
I would like to start the season summary of "Dana Kama" with an appeal to those who have not yet watched the show, either because Dana International has never interested them or because the word "reality" evokes a sense of humor in them.
Leave you nonsense, if you like good TV, put everything aside and fly to binge.
The docu-reality series about Dana International created by Yonatan Konyak and Ilan Eboudi (in collaboration with Shai Kerem and Dana herself), is not only a cult in the making, one that spawned cultural quotes and gestures (don't miss Eden Daniel Gabai's imitation of Limor), in its peak moments (and there were quite a few ) was smart, sophisticated, exciting and downright unpredictable TV, an impressive feat for any series regardless of genre.
The biggest thrill of watching the show was the feeling that you have no idea what you will see on the screen in the next episode - every visit to the doctor or the recording studio can get a twist and go to completely unexpected places.
Moments of hysterical laughter can turn into horrible gloom in seconds and vice versa.
Yes,
Like many docu-reality series, the first season of "Dana Kama" (yes) was also a travel series.
In the superficial sense, we saw Dana's journey towards coming to terms with her current position - from her failure to show up for the event at the President's residence to her performance at the tribute evening in her honor in the presence of former Prime Minister Lapid.
But there was also another journey here, a long and arduous journey to create a series.
The way Dana and Shea put each other through this season doesn't even come close to the beret journey they did for Cognac and Abodi.
It's not just the number of times the filming of the series was stopped and there was a question mark (I counted at least three), but the constant mind game that made us wonder what of what we see on the screen is real and what is staged.
In fact, "Dana Kama" managed to be two different series at the same time - the series that Dana's manager, Shai Kerem (more on him later), thought he was doing about Dana's life and his and the series that Konyak and Avodi knew they were doing.
Two completely different series that are broadcast at the same time.
Shay imagined a classic docu-reality,
Dana Kama (Photo: Pini Silok)
On the other hand, the series that Konyak and Aboudi made is about how the hell do you make a reality show when the star of your show doesn't want to appear on the show at all.
Episode after episode we were exposed to more and more conversations that were conducted behind the camera and found themselves on the screen.
It's not just the dinner that Dana "prepared" for her family in her apartment that wasn't hers at all, and in which Shay tried to pull strings from downstairs while Dana's pressure cooker kept boiling until the inevitable explosion.
These are mainly the conversations in which Shay promises the viewers mountains and hills about what Dana is going to do while the latter is not aware of it at all and even if she is aware she is not at all interested.
It seems that Cognac and Abodi were playing a chess game against Kerem, and really?
Even with the end of the season it is very difficult to say who won.
Actually, not so difficult, the ones who won are the viewers.
Beneath the more sophisticated and barangay layer, another layer is hidden in "Dana Kama" and it is the amazing human mosaic that we were exposed to on the screen.
Who would have believed that of all those around her, Dana International is the smallest diva?
Her sister Limor, the priestess of the Gimel language, the princess of the tan and the tough bargainer in Israel ("You can reduce the price"), is among the greatest divas the Israeli screen has ever seen.
Also Drora, Dana's best friend (a title that several people claim), is a character that simply couldn't be written, an eccentric and ageless man who maintains total loyalty to Dana and the second love of his life - Jordana Erzi.
Let's not forget the star who entered the arena a little later but stole the show - Aviva or Avrom, another old friend of Dana's, her foster daughter if you will and Bat Galim's best friend, Dana's mother (wait for her amazing performance in the final episode).
Each of these characters individually is a whole world that could hold a spin-off if needed but their dynamic together on screen created a nuclear energy.
Cynics will say that these are marginal characters who are laughing, I will say that if anyone is laughing here it is us and not the other way around.
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Two divas.
Limor and Dana (Photo: Pini Silok)
Even if you put aside the scripted moments and the dramas that were intensified for the viewers, it is easy to understand that the production of "Dana Kama" was ultimately conducted in complete chaos, such that the continuation of the program was often called into question.
Luckily for us, the anxiety and pressure spawned creativity in the form of spotlights on details from this gang's history that became some of the best moments in the series.
For example, the loan that Limor gave to Aviva, known by its name, "The Debt" (three thousand five hundred shekels spread over an infinite number of interest payments in the amount of five hundred shekels) or the story about the family history of the family's dogs that received the title "The Lineage". These are shockingly esoteric anecdotes that are not really related to the plot of the series but they are filled with so much folklore that you just want to watch them over and over (and over).
And then there's Shay.
Shai Kerem, Dana's personal manager and her partner in the life project we know as Dana International, is a type you don't see every day.
He has a cunning that is suitable for the corridors of the Knesset, energies befitting a boy who has just finished an activity with the Boy Scouts (or Bnei Akiva in his case) and above all a complete lack of shame.
The most interesting moments in the series are the ones where we see Shay as he tries to pull more strings and close more shows and more events for Dana and are exposed to all the white lies he tells his partners and her to make it happen.
Sometimes it's graceful and sometimes, like in the scene where he sits across from Roberto and tries to dig himself out of the hole he's dug for himself (and only sinks deeper and deeper), it's hard to watch.
At the same time, it should be said that there was no "Dana Kama" without Shay.
Not only because he is the engine - sorry, the bulldozer - behind the project.
After removing all the anger and tension between them, Shay and Dana chose to be each other's family decades ago and with all the difficulty they are still there.
Live this partnership without a break, see each other in the less beautiful moments of life, shout, break tools (yes, also verbally) but in the end are completely faithful.
This project is no longer a business that makes millions, but you can see that Shay is emotionally invested in it above and beyond, even when he is wrong in his choices, you can see that all he wants is for Dana to succeed.
Putting the cynicism aside for just a moment, there's something terribly moving about it.
Dana International (Photo: Pini Silock)
And what about Dana?
Dana is the great heroine of the series but also a somewhat tragic character.
It's not just the mental breakdown she experienced during filming that led to a long break and she speaks about it bravely.
During the season there are quite a few moments when it seems she just doesn't want to be there, we all want Dana International and more of her but her?
She just wants to be at home with her dogs, chat with her friends and watch TV.
There is something heartbreaking about it but also empowering and authentic - this massive publicity that so many people only dream of can be extraordinarily toxic, stripping a person of their privacy and leaving them in the public domain.
Dana has been gone for a long time, if I had to bet I would say that the tremendous success of "Dana Kama" may yet return her deeper into her apartment, far from the public eye.
And the truth?
All she deserves is to be happy.
Internationale, the public persona, is a complex figure who, along with unimaginable achievements, also managed to offend quite a few people during her career.
"Dana Kama", despite the super complex image she presented to us, returned to Dana the status she deserves - an international LGBTQ icon, a transgender woman who broke a path for millions in Israel and the world and a unique personality. The evening of the tribute held in her honor and for donations to the Iggy organization was a perfect ending And accurate for a wonderful season. He put the stamp on Dana's national status at a time when the darkness threatens to defeat the light, and in addition brought a kind of closure to the complex relationship with her mother, Bat Galim, who for the first time came to the event in honor of her daughter. The first season of "Dana Kama" She revealed to us a lot of things that we didn't know about the diva, but there is a lot more that we would love to discover, and to quote Limor, "There are hidden things, yes we will understand yes we will know dot dot dot dot".
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