Israeli producer Ariel Leon Isacovitch, Werner Herzog's longtime producing partner, discussed identity, antisemitism, and working in Dublin while premiering "Bucking Fastard" at Venice.
Ariel Leon Isacovitch, an Israeli-born producer and Werner Herzog's producing partner since 2018, premiered "Bucking Fastard" at the 83rd Venice Film Festival this month while speaking openly about working as an Israeli in an industry where that identity has become politically charged. The film competes for the Golden Lion with a cast including Rooney and Kate Mara, Orlando Bloom, and Domhnall Gleeson.
Who is Ariel Leon Isacovitch?
Isacovitch is originally from Ra'anana, Israel. He left the country after his military service and moved to New York, where he began working as a photographer, according to an interview published by N12 on September 7, 2026. In 2004, he survived a hit-and-run accident that left him in a wheelchair for a year; he returned to Israel for rehabilitation at Tel Hashomer Medical Center and had to relearn how to walk.
After rehabilitation, he found the pace of New York too intense for the life he was rebuilding and accepted an invitation to travel to Chile, where he gradually entered the local film industry, first through location work and eventually as a producer. He later founded his own production company, which he named The Roots, a name he says reflects his continued connection to his Israeli identity.
How did Isacovitch and Herzog start working together?
Isacovitch met Werner Herzog roughly a year after founding his production company, when the BBC connected him to a Herzog project filming in Chilean Patagonia, according to the N12 interview. The two have since made six films together over nearly a decade, and Isacovitch describes the relationship as an equal partnership rather than a standard director-producer arrangement, with shared ownership and budget responsibility on their projects.
Herzog has publicly credited Isacovitch's role on multiple occasions during the Venice press cycle. In a September 2026 interview with IndieWire, Herzog called Isacovitch his closest set partner, noting how the two stayed in constant contact even while filming on separate continents, including a stretch when Herzog directed remotely from Germany while Isacovitch led a documentary shoot in Angola. In a Venice press conference reported by Screendaily, Herzog credited Isacovitch as essential to the production, saying he relied on him at every stage.
Did being Israeli affect his work on set in Dublin?
Isacovitch spent roughly four months filming in Dublin, a city where he says he regularly encountered pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Speaking to N12, he said he has never hidden his Israeli and Jewish identity on set and that his entire crew, more than 100 people, knew where he was from. He described an environment where a crew member could show up wearing pro-Palestinian symbols and said he chose not to engage with it, treating it as separate from his work.
He also told N12 that his personal relationships with cast members were unaffected by politics, specifically citing Rooney Mara and her partner Joaquin Phoenix, who has voiced pro-Palestinian positions in the past. According to the interview, the three maintain a personal relationship built on mutual respect that has never crossed into political territory, and Isacovitch said the actors are aware of his background.
What does Isacovitch say about antisemitism in the industry?
Asked directly about antisemitism, Isacovitch told N12 that what he encounters is concentrated in a wider periphery rather than his immediate circle, and that he attributes most of it to ignorance rather than deliberate hostility, describing it as people aligning with what they perceive as the underdog rather than acting from an articulated ideological position. He said he has not encountered what he called intellectually grounded antisemitism. He also pointed to a gap he perceives between public sympathies and private professional relationships within the industry, while saying this gap has not affected how he is treated on set.
Isacovitch also described a smaller, more personal dispute during last year's Venice festival, when he insisted that his own name be announced alongside Herzog's during a public introduction of one of their films. He told N12 he pressed festival director Alberto Barbera directly to make sure his producer credit was recognized on stage, not only in program notes, describing his willingness to push the point as characteristically Israeli.
What is "Bucking Fastard" and how was it received?
"Bucking Fastard" is loosely based on the real case of British identical twins Freda and Greta Chaplin, who became notorious in the 1980s after a restraining order was filed against them by a man they had both become fixated on, according to the film's Wikipedia entry citing Deadline Hollywood's original 2025 casting report. In Herzog's fictionalized version, the sisters, renamed Jean and Joan Holbrooke, speak in unison, share the same dreams, and fall for the same man, played by Orlando Bloom.
The film's path to Venice was unusual: according to a review published by World of Reel, Cannes declined to include "Bucking Fastard" in competition, after which Herzog brought the film to Venice instead, where it world premiered on September 3, 2026 in the Sala Grande. The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline both described a standing ovation lasting roughly seven and a half minutes following the screening, with Deadline reporting that Herzog appeared visibly moved and repeatedly held his hand to his heart during the reception. Critical reaction has been split. The Film Stage's review called the film a "strange, earnestly heartfelt oddity" consistent with Herzog's late-career work, while World of Reel's review was sharply negative, describing the film as wasting its cast's talents. The film is produced by Isacovitch alongside Clara Wu Tsai and Agnes Chu, with Kieran Corrigan, Nick Raslan, Emanuele Moretti, and Andrea Bucko also credited as producers.
Isacovitch told N12 that production wrapped two days ahead of schedule and came in 11 percent under budget, crediting Herzog's working style and its influence on the cast and crew. He said he now lives in Tel Aviv while continuing to run production operations across Latin America, and that his connection to Israel has grown stronger since October 7, 2023.
Sources: N12/Mako, September 7, 2026 (Hebrew-language interview, translated and paraphrased by The Olam); The Hollywood Reporter; IndieWire; Screendaily; Cineuropa; Deadline; Variety; The Film Stage; World of Reel; Wikipedia (citing Deadline Hollywood, April 2025).
