Late Israel spy Eli Cohen to be immortalized in U.S. movie
Cohen penetrated Syria's power hubs in the 1960s, became part of Damascus's ruling establishment.
By Nirit Anderman Tags: Syria Israel newsThe American producer L+E Pictures intends to make a motion picture about Israeli spy Eli Cohen, who operated in Damascus in the 1960s until he was executed in 1965.
The production company has purchased the filming rights to Shmuel Segev's book "Alone in Damascus" about Cohen's life, MovieWeb reported yesterday, citing Variety Magazine. The script will be written by director and scriptwriter Lior Geller, creator of the short film "Roads."
Segev told Haaretz yesterday that negotiations over the rights to his book were still in progress. "The deal is not done yet, but I very much hope that the problem will be solved within a few days and that the deal goes through," Segev said.
"Alone in Damascus" (Published by Keter, 1986) tells the story of Eli Cohen, known as the greatest Israeli spy of all time, who penetrated Syria's power hubs and rose through the ranks to become part of the ruling establishment in Damascus.
The novel examines several events in Cohen's life, including his recruitment, operation and capture by the Syrians.
Geller, a graduate of the Tel Aviv University's film department, won the Wolgin Award for Best Short Film in the 2007 Jerusalem Film Festival for "Roads." The film was screened in New York's Tribeca Film Festival and made the 2008 Oscar shortlist for student filmmakers.
Geller has since begun working to make "Roads" into a full-length movie, and also co-directed "Heart From Jenin" with Marcus Vetter. The film tells the true story of Ahmed Chatib, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy who was accidentally killed by an Israeli soldier, who goes on to save the lives of several Israeli children after his parents decide to donate his organs.
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Samir - refugee camps in a "hostile country"? Wait - are not all Arabs brothers? Are not all governments in the region so sympathetic towards the Palestinian cause? Just listen to their rhethorics. Are you saying they are all hypocrites?
and have 5,000 pals left in "Palestine"? Only fair.
is written by Eli Ben Hanan, called "Our Mad in Damascus: Elie Cohn", published by Steimatzky in Israel.
Elie Cohen was Egyptian Jew. He didn't spy for Israel while living in Egypt. He spied for Israel when he was an Israeli citizen, working for Mossad. And he spied against Syria. About 1 million Jews were pushed out of Arab countries, many were dispossessed, some executed and about 99.9% of them didn't have anything to do with Israel. Obviously you have some loyal citizens, some non loyal citizens (which are great minority) in every community. Are you saying that all (100%) Israeli Arabs are loyal Israeli citizen?
And did Ethiopians expel jews? Did Yemen expell jews? Did Russia expel jews? if my memory serves me, jews in west mounted a determined campaign to allow Jews to leave those countries. Great pressure and great incentives were brought to bear on many countries to let their jews go to Israel. The only diference between what happened to Jews in Russia, yemen, and Ethiopia and jews from Egypt is that the press was not around to record how Egyptian Jews traded an impoverished and battered Egypt with a European Israel. Same for jews in other Arab countries. So have the decency to admit that your move to Israel was not like a Palestinian's expulsion to a desolate refugee camp in a hostile country.
The Arabs pushed them out by murder torture robberry rape and harrasment.Go learn your history before posting crap.Blaming Jews for theor misfortune is as old as Moses and is the typical way that unlearned rednecks try to justify the mistreatment of Jews.Jews were in arab lands before christianity and before islam.They were anihilated in Saudi Arabia by treachery go on guess who was behind it.Zionists had nothing to do with what the arabs did to their Jewish brothers that is a lame excuse for what they did.
interesting figure from Egyptjew! at least he admits that some arab jews were not loyal citizens, Cohen was one of them. one last remark sir, jews were living like all other citizens in the Arab countries, those who pushed them out are the zionists.
What is actually happening is presenting a known story already mentioned or filmed before, as a new discovery,a book or a film.Take Ben MacIntyre,s (The times)new book,on "Operation Mincemeat"The film producers or/and publishers make more money presenting their wares as new. It is as simple as that,in short business is business.
It will be a great movie. Loved the book.
#2: There are only 5,000 Jews left in Arab lands out of 1 million. 99.99% of us were loyal and we were thrown out and robbed before Eli Cohen started his job.
this is a shortsighted decision made that will make someone rich but will harm jews living in Arab world as loyal citizens. What's next? a movie glorifying Jonathon pollard?
Why no mention of "The Impossible Spy" (1987)? It was directed by Jim Goddard, filmed in Israel and stars John Shea as Eli Cohen. I believe it was initially released on HBO. Not a bad portrayal of the Israeli hero.