Gal Gadot May Star In Nazi Redemption Thriller

Don’t let us down, Gal! Image by Getty Images

By Jenny Singer December 22, 2017

The great news: against all odds, a woman with a mysteriously unpronounceable last name from a desert country that is 1/90th the size of Mexico has become one of the world’s most beloved movie stars.

The confusing news: her next movie, slated for late 2018, might be a post-World War II revenge thriller about a Nazi captain who decides to kill his former SS comrades as a way of atoning.

I think I speak for the entire Jewish people when I say, “I’m going to need to talk with my therapist about this.”

It seems that for some time, “Wonder Woman” star Gal Gadot has been negotiating to co-star in “Ruin,” an action-adventure movie about a violently repentant Nazi.

Was this Herzl’s dream? Did his utopian “light unto the nations” state for the Jews imagine IDF alums who go so full-circle that they make movies valorizing top-brass Nazis?

Keep in mind — this isn’t a movie about a German civilian who was swept away on the tide of fascism before beginning to question his complicity in a genocide. It’s about a Nazi captain after World War II. So this fantasy character joined the Nazis, rose through the ranks of those efficiently genociding Jews, and only began to remorsefully gear up for a bloody, self-directed day of atonement after his side lost the war.

A strange vehicle for an Israeli movie star, and a poor choice for a movie. At least, so it would seem. A movie where Gal Gadot hunts and kills Nazis solo would be highly preferable.

Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

Jenny Singer is a freelance writer with pieces in Vox, the Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Teen Vogue, and more. She was previously a staff writer at Glamour and the Forward, and she’s currently getting an MFA in nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa.

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.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda

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