Michael Aloni set to star in Hulu’s Holocaust drama

Michael Aloni, the Israeli actor who became an unexpected heartthrob as  lovelorn Orthodox Akiva in Shtisel is returning to the small screen. Aloni, who will be 29 on January 30, is about to star in We Were the Lucky Ones on Hulu and once again it is a series with very Jewish themes.

Based on the book of the same name by Georgia Hunter, We Were the Lucky Ones tells the true life story of the Kurc family in Poland who survived the Holocaust  and reunited after the war.  Hunter’s grandfather, Addy Kurc, came from a Jewish family in Radom, Poland and the book follows his story of Addy, as well as that of his parents Nechuma and Sol, and siblings Genek, Mila, Jakob, and Halina along with their spouses.

Spanning six years and five continents, Aloni will portray lab researcher Selim who is married to Addy’s sister Mila. This is a fortuitous bit of screen pairing for Aloni as Mila will be played by Israeli actress, Hadas Yaron who was Libbi, Akiva’s wife in Shtisel.

“Happy to be a part of this with such a talented group of humans,” wrote Aloni on Instagram about the limited series also includes Unorthodox star Amit Rahav as youngest brother Jacob, Eva Feiler of The Crown, as Jacob’s  high school sweetheart and Israel’s leading man, Lior Ashkenazi as Sol the family’s patriarch.

The most exciting part of this production for Shtisel fans will be the return of Aloni who was seen most recently in The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem and in a small, but significant role in HBO’s Scenes from a Marriage.

Yet the biggest news about We Were the Lucky Ones is that it will be directed by Thomas Kail who brought  Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musicals In the Heights and Hamilton to the stage. Kail who has also been tapped by MGM to direct a new big-screen adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof is married to actress Michelle Williams who plays Steven Spielberg’s mother in The Fabelmans which opens on January 27.  We Were the Lucky Ones is only in pre-production, so no release date has been announced, which means Aloni fans will have to bide their time.