Sacha Baron Cohen takes a dramatic turn in trailer for The Spy

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Audiences may know Sacha Baron Cohen as the chameleon comedian who often dons all sorts of characters for the sake of infiltrating groups and poking fun at unsuspecting individuals, like in BORAT, BRUNO and the Showtime series, WHO IS AMERICA? But in the new Netflix limited series, THE SPY, Cohen will be ditching all traces of comedy and is taking a serious dramatic turn as Eliyahu "Eli" Ben-Shaul Cohen, a Mossad agent who infiltrated the Syrian government and changed the course of Isreal's history forever. Not exactly a lot of room to go "Very nice!"

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Formerly working for the military intelligence branch of the Israel Defense Forces, Cohen was working as a clerk for an insurance agency when he was recruited by Mossad to spy on the Syrian government. After being selected he moved to Argentina in 1961 to establish his cover, and in 1962 officially moved to Damascus and assumed the identity of Kamel Amin Thaabet and spent the next few years spying on the government, collecting a bounty of valuable information. The series looks to get into so much more of what that fascinating story has to offer, including the effect it had on Cohen as he ventured deeper into the situation and blurred the line between his real and false identity. 

The story itself sounds compelling and the trailer advertises a solid, old-school spy story with what looks like a terrific performance at the center from Cohen. He's had a chance to stretch his legs before in movies like LES MISERABLES, HUGO and SWEENY TODD, but he's never tackled drama quite like this. To see his work unfold is just one reason to be interested in tuning in, and we won't have to wait much longer to do that as the series premieres next week on Netflix on September 6.

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Here's the synopsis:

In the 1960s, Israeli clerk-turned-secret agent Eli Cohen goes deep undercover inside Syria on a perilous, years-long mission to spy for Mossad.

The series stars Emmy-nominated Sacha Baron Cohen (Who is America?) as Cohen, a man who wants nothing more than to be of service to his country, but he does his job so well that he finds it hard to strip off his double identity. Noah Emmerich (The Americans) plays Dan Peleg, Eli’s Mossad handler who tries to ease his own guilt over the sacrifices Eli makes, Hadar Ratzon Rotem (Homeland) portrays Eli’s wife, Nadia, who is left to raise their family on her own and knows something isn’t right about her husband’s government job, and Waleed Zuaiter (Colony) plays Amin Al-Hafez, a military officer who thinks he’s found the perfect ally in the undercover Cohen. THE SPY is written and directed by Emmy-winner Gideon Raff (Prisoners of War, Homeland and Tyrant). Raff and Max Perry co-wrote episodes 3-6. The series is produced by Alain Goldman (La Vie en Rose) and Légende Films.