Israeli superstar Gal Gadot to produce film adaptation of banned Israeli novel

The book was banned in Israeli classrooms on the grounds that it could undermine the distinct identity of Israeli Jews.

By World Israel News Staff

Gal Gadot and her husband Jaron Varsano will be co-producing a film adaptation of a novel banned by Israel’s education ministry in high school classrooms, reports Variety.

The 2014 Hebrew novel “Borderlife” by Israeli author Dorit Rabinyan, is a story about Liat, a Jewish Israeli translator, and Khilmi, a Palestinian painter who meet in New York and fall in love. The couple tries to find a peaceful balance whilst dealing with the stress of hiding their relationship from friends and family.

In 2015, former Education Minister Naftali Bennett banned the book in high school classrooms on the grounds that it could undermine the distinct identity of Israeli Jews.

“The story is based on a romantic motif of a forbidden/secret and impossible love,” the Education Ministry said in a statement at the time. “Adolescent youth tend to romanticize and don’t have, in many cases, the systematic point of view that includes considerations about preserving the identity of the nation and the significance of assimilation.”

Shortly afterward, the controversial book was permitted by the ministry to be read in advanced literature classes

Gadot and Varsano are also working on four other projects together.

One of them is an American version of the Israeli crime drama “Queens.” In season one of the Israeli version, the men in the Malka family crime syndicate are murdered by a rival gang, leaving the women to take over the family’s criminal enterprise.

Another Gadot-Varsano pilot in the works is a biographical TV series about Hedy Lamarr, the acclaimed actress who helped invent wifi.

The third is a film about the life story of Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker and nurse who saved Jewish children in Nazi-occupied Poland.

The last project the couple is working on is a film called “My Dearest Fidel,” a story about Lisa Howard, the first female correspondent for ABC News, who developed an intimate relationship with Fidel Castro.

Gadot will be reprising her role as Wonder Woman in the highly anticipated movie sequel “Wonder Woman 1984,” which is slated for release in the U.S. on July 4, 2020.