Michael Behagen

Michael Behagen (born 1952) is an Israeli film director, writer and musician.

Behagen was born in 1952 and currently lives in Oregon, Illinois.

His most distinguished work so far is considered to be Late Night Stories, a thriller TV series that he wrote and directed.

It was aired in Israel in the late 1980s.

Michael Behagen made his first short film The Wind, about the Suez Canal, where he was doing his military service.

In 1980, still a student, Michael Behagen wrote and directed Shapiro's Song and won an Ophir Award for the best Israel film director.

In 1981, he then graduated from the Tel Aviv University Film department.

In 1986, he directed his first feature film, The Plumber.

In 1987, Michael Behagen wrote and directed The Cuckoo Clock, the pilot of the Late Night Stories TV series.

It took the Israeli TV another year to approve the series.

At that time, most Israeli TV movies produced by IBA, the only channel at that time, dealt only with Israeli identity topics.

He came up with a series that dealt with intimate fears.

Late Night Stories is a TV thriller series of 13 films written, directed, produced and composed by Behagen between 1987 and 1991 and aired in Israel between 1988 and 1991.

The English version of the series aired in Germany and Russia.

In "The Cookoo Clock" A young woman awakens on a fateful morning.

A crucial meeting is due to take place at the advertising agency where she works.

She cannot miss it.

Unfortunately she finds herself locked in her twelfth floor apartment in a newly built building.

She did ask her husband to lock the door but now she can't find her key.

In "Puppet Show" Nicole is running a traveling puppet show.

She keeps all her equipment in an old van.

When the van breaks down on an isolated road, she seeks the assistance of an eccentric garagist.

Rafael knows this is a simple problem but prefers to complicate matters, encouraging Nicole to spend the night at his remote spot.

In "The Replacement" Alex, an infamously unfaithful dentist, is told by his wife, a sculptor, that she has terminal cancer and only few months to live.

Oddly enough Rivi is hardly upset by her impending death but seems obsessed by the guilt of leaving Alex alone.

Before long, Rivi presents her husband with a beautiful young model.

A bizarre romance flames, with Rivi acting the part of the matchmaker.

Suddenly Rivi regrets her action, wondering whether the new-found lovers will continue to bow to her whims.

In "Line Up", Yossef Berger comes to the police station complaining that his car was towed from a legal parking space.

A policeman asks him a small favor: They're missing one man for a line-up.

Berger agrees, but he's in a hurry to get to work.

A prominent foreign investor is coming to his brokerage house this morning.

During the line-up two witnesses identify Berger as the perpetrator of a murder.

Berger discovers that the victim is the foreign investor who arrived earlier than scheduled without informing anyone.

Worse than this, Berger had apparently very good reasons to want him dead.

In "The Earring", Ossi, a stunning model, wakes one morning to discover that her ear has grown to abnormal proportions.

In 1997 Michael Behagen wrote and directed his 2nd feature film Forever Young, based on the true story of a deadly desert crash that ended four young people's lives.

A videotape was found in the crashed vehicle.

It included astonishing footage of the last moments of the 4 young men.

This terrible accident inflamed Israel so much that people demanded a retelling of the story to understand how it could have happened.