(JTA) — A high-profile film project depicting Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-Day War may star “Jane the Virgin” actress Yael Grobglas.
Oded Raz — best known for directing the Israeli box office hit “Maktub,” which now streams on Netflix — will direct “Jerusalem 67,” Variety informed of on Friday.
Grobglas — a French-Israeli actress who starred in last year’s holiday rom-com “Hanukkah on Rye” — is in “advanced talks,” according to Variety, to play the lead: “a civilian haunted by a traumatic childhood.” which leaves his family to serve on the front lines of the war.
Variety said the film has been a passion project for New York-based attorney Joseph Schick, who has been developing it for a decade. Shooting is set to begin in Israel in August amid a climate of recent conflict and division prompted by last year’s election of the country’s most right-wing government in history.
“In 1967, Israel had social, cultural, economic divisions and was by no means a perfect society. And I think what happened is a reminder of how to handle that situation,” said Schick, who added that the cast will be mostly Israeli.
Filmmakers consider shooting abroad before being enacted by Israel tax incentive programs With the aim of encouraging more domestic film production, according to Variety.
Yael Grobglas arrives at the 24th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall on January 21, 2018 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
“Jerusalem is a very special place to shoot,” said Raj. “It is not an easy city to film every day. Something may happen because of the political situation but this environment and this atmosphere create a special energy.
In recent years several other fictional films have been set during or just after the Six-Day War, including the spy thriller “The Angel”. Decades earlier, Israel’s 1986 submission for the Academy Award’s foreign film competition, “Avanti Popolo,” followed Israeli and Egyptian soldiers wandering in the Sinai desert after the war.
The 1973 Yom Kippur War was chronicled in a series that was picked up by HBO in 2020 titled “Valley of Tears”, dubbed as the most expensive Israeli film or TV production at the time.
