Gal Gadot to co-produce movie on Israeli-Palestinian love story

Israeli actress Gal Gadot and her husband have signed a deal to co-produce a movie version of a book that was struck from Israeli high school curricula due to its depiction of a love story between an Israeli and a Palestinian.

Gadot and Yaron Varsano’s Pilot Wave production company will partner with  Israeli production company Keshet International to produce the on-screen adaption of Dorit Rabinyan’s “Borderlife,” which was published in English as “All The Rivers.”

The book tells the story of an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man who fall in love during a frigid New York City winter and choose to hide their romance from friends and family as they struggle to come to terms with the relationship.

It became the source of controversy in Israel in 2015 when the Education Ministry decided to pull the book from recommended reading lists for high school students, due to it “threatening Jewish identity.” It subsequently became a bestseller.

Dorit Rabinyan’s ‘All The Rivers,’ recently published in English (Courtesy Amazon)

Gadot is currently visiting Israel on a break between filming a new adaptation of Agatha Christie’s “Death on the Nile” with Kenneth Branagh, and “Red Notice,” Variety magazine reported.

Gadot and Varsano have launched several projects since founding Pilot Wave earlier this year, including a series about the Jewish actress Hedy Lamarr and a film about Polish Underground leader Irena Sendler, with Gadot playing the title character in each one. Pilot Wave is also working on “My Dearest Fidel,” an adaptation of Peter Kornbluh’s magazine article about the close friendship between ABC journalist Lisa Howard and Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

In July, it was announced that Gadot will star in the biggest feature film ever made by Netflix, “Red Notice,” also starring Ryan Reynolds and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The action thriller, set for release in late 2020, is centered around the pursuit of the most wanted art thief in the world.