VENICE, Sept 5 — Cannes winning director Amos Gitai is to helm a film about Dona Gracia Nasi, a wealthy 1500s businesswoman credited with saving numerous lives during a time of religious persecution.
She might not be a household name, but Portuguese businesswoman Beatrice Mendes — later known as Gracia Nasi — helped a considerable number of Jews escape persecution her native Lisbon during the 16th century.
“Dona Gracia was an incredibly fierce and visionary woman who led an exceptional life,” film director Amos Gitai said in a statement carried by Variety.
“Not only did she escape persecution, she faced off the Pope who had sentenced converted Jews (known as Conversos) to execution and organised a trade embargo at the Port of Arcona; she saved more than 25,000 Jews and she later created the first Jewish state for refugees in Tiberias.”
Gracia Nasi was able to do so thanks to the hospitality of the Ottoman Empire, then under Muslim rule, and the film will also “challenge stereotypes about Islam” and demonstrate how Islamic art and culture influenced its Western counterpart during the Renaissance, Gitai said.
Gitai’s feature comedy A Tramway in Jerusalem and short Albert Camus homage A Letter to a Friend in Gaza both premiered in Italy at the Venice Film Festival this September 3.
The Dona Nasi movie has been in the works for four years, Gitai working with frequent co-writer Marie-José Sanselme.
It represents a team-up between Gitai and two French producers; one had collaborated with him on 2015’s Rabin, the Last Day, the other was on board for the Lea Seydoux and Diane Kruger 2012 Marie Antoinette drama Farewell, My Queen. — AFP-Relaxnews
