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Gal Gadot wants to work with Argentine-Jewish director Damian Szifron
BUENOS AIRES (JTA) — Gal Gadot revealed in an interview that went viral in Argentine media that she would like to collaborate with Damian Szifron, an acclaimed Argentine-Jewish director who often weaves Jewish characters into his work.
A snippet of the Israeli “Wonder Woman” star talking to Argentine journalist Agustin Eme about Szifron was viewed millions of times on social media earlier this month. She said that Szifron’s 2014 film “Wild Tales” was one of her favorite films.
“Damian, I would love to work with you,” Gadot said in the video, which was part of a conversation about her latest Netflix film “Heart of Stone.”
“My personal mission now is to talk to Damian Szifron, to [have him] make a movie with you,” Eme responded.
¿Alguien tiene a mano el teléfono de Szifron? pic.twitter.com/LYUOet5Ahr
— Agustin Eme (@agustineme) August 11, 2023
Before becoming one of Argentina’s best-known filmmakers, Szifron, 48, was born and raised in Ramos Mejia, a small suburb outside of Buenos Aires. He grew up attending a Jewish school and going to the only Jewish center and sport club in the region.
His big break came with the TV show “The Pretenders,” a series about con artists hired to solve people’s problems, which won a Martin Fierro award — Argentina’s equivalent of an Emmy — for best TV series in 2002. Many of the characters were based on Jewish people from the real Jewish community center Szifron grew up attending — the CISO (Centro Israelita Sionista del Oeste, or the Western Israelite Zionist Center), which serves a small, middle-class Jewish community on the western side of the greater Buenos Aires area.
Szifron’s film career began with 2003’s “Bottom of the Sea,” a comedic drama starring Uruguayan-Jewish actor Daniel Hendler. The protagonist of his second film, 2005’s “On Probation” (in Spanish, “Tiempo de valientes,” or “Time For the Brave”), is a Jewish psychologist named Mariano Silverstein.
Szifron’s 2014 anthology film “Wild Tales” won him global acclaim. It also included multiple Jewish characters and moments — such as an entire segment about a Jewish wedding, complete with klezmer music.
He has said that after his paternal grandfather escaped from a train headed to a Nazi death camp. Szifron’s father worked in a cinema.
“He could watch the films for free. He became a huge cinephile, so ever since I can remember I have a memory of being taken to the cinema by him,” Szifron said in 2015.
Gadot’s “Heart of Stone,” an action thriller, was released earlier this month. Pending the outcome of the Hollywood writer and actor strikes, she is set to star as the Evil Queen in a “Snow White” adaptation next year.
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The post Gal Gadot wants to work with Argentine-Jewish director Damian Szifron appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iran Currency Plunges to Record Lows Amid Escalating US Tensions
ILLUSTRATIVE: The Iranian flag waves in front of the IAEA headquarters before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Lisi Niesner
Iran’s currency fell on Saturday to a new all-time low against the US dollar after the country’s supreme leader rejected talks with the United States and President Donald Trump moved to restore his “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran.
The rial plunged to 892,500 to the dollar on the unofficial market on Saturday, compared with 869,500 rials on Friday, according to the foreign exchange website alanchand.com. The bazar360.com website said the dollar was sold for 883,100 rials. Asr-e-no website reported the dollar trading at 891,000 rials.
Facing an official inflation rate of about 35%, Iranians seeking safe havens for their savings have been buying dollars, other hard currencies, gold or cryptocurrencies, suggesting further headwinds for the rial.
The dollar has been gaining against the rial since trading around 690,000 rials at the time of Trump’s re-election in November amid concerns that Trump would re-impose his “maximum pressure” policy against Iran with tougher sanctions and empower Israel to strike Iranian nuclear sites.
Trump in 2018 withdrew from a nuclear deal struck by his predecessor Barack Obama in 2015 and re-imposed U.S. economic sanctions on Iran that had been relaxed. The deal had limited Iran’s ability to enrich uranium, a process that can yield fissile material for nuclear weapons.
Iran’s rial has lost more than 90% of its value since the sanctions were reimposed in 2018.
The post Iran Currency Plunges to Record Lows Amid Escalating US Tensions first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Envoy’s ‘Zionist’ Ring Sends Shockwaves on Social Media
Lebanon’s army chief Joseph Aoun walks after being elected as the country’s president at the parliament building in Beirut, Lebanon, Jan. 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
i24 News – A photo showing US President Donald Trump’s deputy Middle East envoy donning a ring embellished with the Star of David to a meeting with Lebanon’s leader triggered outrage in Arabic social and broadcast media.
As Morgan Ortagus, who is Jewish, shook hands with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, her Star of David ring was visible in the frame, sparking accusations such as her being “more Zionist than her predecessors.”
Her direct superior, Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, is likewise Jewish-American, as is his predecessor Amos Hochstein, who was born in Jerusalem and served in the Israel Defense Forces.
Ortagus is the first senior Trump admin official to visit Lebanon amid the fragile ceasefire agreed by Israel and the Lebanon-based Shiite jihadists of Hezbollah.
The post US Envoy’s ‘Zionist’ Ring Sends Shockwaves on Social Media first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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UK: Pro-Palestinian Activists Applied for a March Permit on Oct 7 as Massacre Was Ongoing
Supporters of Hizb ut-Tahrir at a pro-Hamas rally in London. Photo: Reuters/Martin Pope
i24 News – Anti-Israeli activists in Britain applied for a permit to stage a demonstration through London on the morning of October 7, 2023, as Gazan jihadists were rampaging through southern Israel and slaughtering civilians, the Daily Telegraph reported.
At 12:50 PM, as the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust was still ongoing, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) notified the Metropolitan Police that they intended to hold a rally the following week.
Reports and videos of the Hamas-led onslaught began appearing on social media, and Israeli and then international broadcast media, several hours earlier.
“The Met was contacted on Saturday Oct 7 at approximately 12.50pm via telephone call and informed of the intention to protest,” a police spokesman was quoted by the Telegraph as saying. “The Met committed this to our systems on the same day and are satisfied being contacted by telephone was a sufficient means in which to notify the MPS as the event was taking place seven days after notification.”
The group’s spokesperson defended the move, telling the Telegraph it was “clear” as early as Saturday noon that “the Israeli attacks on Gaza would be of an indiscriminate violence we had not witnessed before, and that 2.3 million people in Gaza – more than 50 percent of them children – were at severe risk.”
The post UK: Pro-Palestinian Activists Applied for a March Permit on Oct 7 as Massacre Was Ongoing first appeared on Algemeiner.com.