Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Israel News

Helen Mirren’s Hebrew Lesson

Hollywood’s newest Mossad agent has arrived in Israel for filming.

Oscar winner Helen Mirren landed near Tel Aviv on March 15 to shoot scenes for “The Debt,” an English-language remake of a 2007 Israeli thriller about a small team of Mossad operatives who capture and then accidentally release a Nazi war criminal in Berlin. Four decades later, the murderous German doctor resurfaces in Ukraine, ready to confess his crimes — a twist that presents a problem for the now-retired intelligence agents, who became national heroes at home after reporting that they had killed the man during his escape attempt. Mirren, a 2007 Oscar winner for her role in “The Queen,” will play Rachel Singer, one of the Mossad operatives who is herself the daughter of Holocaust survivors. The film co-stars two-time Oscar nominee Tom Wilkinson (“In the Bedroom,” “Michael Clayton”) and will be directed by John Madden, a 1999 Oscar nominee for his work behind the camera on “Shakespeare in Love.” Filming will take place partly in Herzliya, a coastal town north of Tel Aviv, and is also scheduled for locations in England and Germany.

Mirren, who worked with a speech specialist for her Oscar-winning role as Queen Elizabeth II, has learned some Hebrew and studied the history of the Mossad as part of her preparation for her role in “The Debt.” The film is set to be released next year.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version