Amos Gitai to direct film on Renaissance businesswoman Doña Gracia Nasi

Filmmaker Amos Gitai presented an exclusive preview of his upcoming film about Doña Gracia Nasi in Ferrara. Born around 1510 in Portugal to a Jewish family forced to convert, she was known as Beatrice de Luna before reclaiming her Jewish identity. One of the wealthiest women of the Renaissance, she chose Ferrara as the city to return to Judaism, living there from 1549 to 1552. She financed the publication of the Bible and other liturgical works in Spanish to help others reconnect with their heritage. Gitai, whose father was a Bauhaus architect who fled Nazi Germany in 1934 and whose mother was born in British Palestine to Russian immigrants, shares Nasi's experience of migration and persecuted identity. During his stay in Italy, Gitai will scout locations for the film and explain his motivation to tell her story.