The last time Noomi Rapace and writer/director Vicky Jewson worked together, we got action thriller Close, which hit Netflix in January. They're teaming back up for another film, sticking with the genre for Sylvia.
And this one will have a real-life basis: Rapace will play Sylvia Rafael, a South African-born agent who rose to prominence in Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. She was noted for her intelligence work in locating Ali Hassan Salameh, the leader of Palestine’s Black September organization and the figure behind the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
But the mission led to her involvement in the infamous Lillehammer affair, in which an innocent Moroccan waiter was mistakenly identified as Salameh and killed by Rafael’s team. Rafael was tried in Norway and imprisoned. She died in South Africa in 2005. Jewson and co-writer Rupert Whitaker were inspired by Sylvia Rafael: The Life And Death Of A Mossad Spy, which was written by Ram Oren and Moti Kfir, a former Mossad agent who trained Rafael.
"What is so enticing about this project is the opportunity to tell the true story of an extraordinary woman, who sacrificed a huge part of her life for a country that was not originally her own," Jewson says in a statement carried by Variety. "I am keen to explore the unique personality of someone who put their life at risk on a daily basis and lived under a permanent dual identity, searching beyond the often glamorously perceived title of 'spy' to the gritty reality of this life and what drove her."
Unlike Close, this one doesn't have a home just yet but the rights are on sale to buyers at the Cannes Film Market.
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