‘The Sixteenth Sheep’ documentary celebrates reunion of a musical supergroup

It’s hard to imagine any screening of The Sixteenth Sheep: The Reunion, the documentary by acclaimed director Ran Tal, that doesn’t turn into a singalong, and that’s what happened at the DocuText Festival at the National Library of Israel on Sunday night, which opened with the premiere screening of the film.

Although the audience didn’t sing all the way through every song, it is hard to listen to these beautiful songs without joining in, just as the audiences filmed in this documentary do.

The movie tells the behind-the-scenes story of the reunion of the Sixteenth Sheep group – David Broza, Gidi Gov, Yehudit Ravitz, and Yoni Rechter, each of them among the greatest Israeli musicians of all time on their own, but together, a true supergroup.

The four agreed to participate in revival concerts for The Sixteenth Sheep album, based on a 1978 book of poems by the late Yehonatan Geffen and which features music composed by Rechter. It has become a classic that continues to delight three generations, from toddlers to their grandparents.

Israelis love The Sixteenth Sheep songs, which are told and sung from the point of view of a child, as he counts sheep and tries to fall asleep. Unlike many children’s songs, which are cliché and derivative, the quality of the music and lyrics is as high as anything ever written here, and the songs don’t condescend to children or idealize childhood.

Film will debut in Yes and Hot later in the year

They deal with the fears and anxieties of a child, as well as showcasing children’s humor and delight in the world. The classic tunes, such as “The Prettiest Girl in Kindergarten,” “Closed Kindergarten,” “Whoever Looks,” and “How a Song is Born,” can still be heard every day on the radio – nearly 50 years after their release.

When it was announced that the four would do a handful of revival concerts in late 2024, well into the war, it seemed like the best idea ever, a soothing reminder of one of the most enduring achievements in Israeli culture, and the concerts sold out in minutes.

Soon, more dates were announced, and the musicians have continued to perform together on and off over the past two years, with some backup musicians and a video appearance by Geffen, whose distinctive voice narrated many of the songs on the album.

Devotees of The Sixteenth Sheep will not want to miss this film when it is shown later in the year on Yes and Hot. And at the DocuText screening, Ravitz and Rechter were in the audience. Even though they did not come up on stage, it was a thrill just knowing they were there.

The documentary, first and foremost, is a record of this reunion tour, and much of it is footage of the group performing the songs. It will bring back wonderful memories for those who saw the concerts and will give those who couldn’t make it a chance to see them.

There are interviews with audience members who are superfans of the group and the songs and shows the community and intense enjoyment the concerts gave them.

But it's also a portrait of each of the artists, and of Geffen, who the others speculate would have been far more overtly political during wartime than they were. There are many clips from their initial Sixteenth Sheep concerts back in the 1970s, and time has been extremely kind to these four artists, who are all in their 70s now, but who still sing beautifully.

Rechter admitted that in the beginning, he thought he would need to invite some new singers in to perform, but the others resisted, and rightly so. We also get a glimpse of the dynamics of the group members, all of whom have healthy egos and sometimes clash artistically.

It’s also interesting to hear them speak about what it was like for them to revisit these hits from nearly 50 years ago, and how they feel about getting older.

Songs featured have deeper meanings than other children's classics

Rechter and Broza speak of their relationship with Geffen, who was a kind of mentor to them, and Geffen can be seen talking in interviews from years ago about how writing helped heal some of the scars from his troubled childhood, particularly his mother’s suicide. Knowing that will only enhance your appreciation for the songs.

The songs effortlessly evoke what children think about, sweets, seashells, their kindergarten being closed, curiosity about passersby they see in the city, and confusion about adult life.

“The Prettiest Girl in the Kindergarten” teaches an unforgettable lesson about empathy, how can such a pretty girl ever feel sad?, which is far more meaningful than so many preachy kids’ songs.

These concerts also featured songs from each artist’s solo career, including songs that Geffen wrote, such as Broza’s “Things Will Be Better,” and many of these are shown in the film.

Tal also situates the concerts squarely during wartime, showing the demonstrations in nearby Hostages Square, which sometimes passed by the theater. Ravitz said that at first she had an impulse to wait with the reunion until the war ended but realized that the war was not close to ending.

I was lucky enough to attend one of the shows, and it was like being given some kind of magical potion that let me forget the reality outside the theater for a little while, and many people said that they felt something akin to this in the film.

If I have one quibble with the documentary, it’s that it does not give a full sense of the album, that the songs are a journey through the mind of a child who can’t fall asleep.

At the concert I attended, Gov said, “The real reason we reunited and that we are here is that for over a year now, the people of Israel have not slept at night.” It was a beautiful moment, and it illuminated why 2024-2025 was the perfect time for the group to come together again.

As I noted in the review I wrote of that performance, it was as if the Houthi terrorists from Yemen, who had been bombing Tel Aviv pretty regularly in early 2025, wanted to give the city a rest so people could enjoy The Sixteenth Sheep.

But as shown in the documentary, songs such as “Lightning and Thunder,” for which Broza wrote the music, about how some thunder is scary and some isn’t, took on a new meaning during the period of those concerts, and it’s wonderful that this phenomenon was captured in a documentary.