Ben Kingsley Playing Adolf Eichmann In Movie About Israeli Capture Operation

Image by Getty Images

By JTA October 16, 2017

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — British actor Ben Kingsley is in Buenos Aires filming a Hollywood movie about the capture of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann by Israeli agents.

Filming of “Operation Finale” will last one more month in the greater Buenos Aires area in which Eichmann lived as Ricardo Klement until a Mossad unit led by Peter Malkin captured him in May 1960. Malkin will be played by the Guatemalan-American actor Oscar Isaac.

The movie will show how Eichmann lived in Argentina as Klement before it was discovered he was the infamous Nazi, and how the Mossad carried out the operation in Buenos Aires. Israel executed Eichmann in 1962.

Tony Award winner Michael Aronov will play another Mossad agent, Zvi Aharoni.

Argentina was a haven for Nazi war criminals after World War II, including Joseph Mengele and Erich Priebke. One month ago the country presented to Israel tens of thousands of documents from the World War II era, some of them related to Nazi war criminals.

Kingsley, who won an Oscar for his 1982 portrayal of Mahatma Gandhi, has played “Moses” for TV (1995); Itzhak Stern in “Schindler’s List” (1993); Otto Frank for “Anne Frank” (2001); and Simon Wiesenthal in “Murderers Among Us” (1989).

“The Man Who Captured Eichmann,” a 1996 film starring Robert Duvall, was based on the book “Eichman In My Hands” written by Malkin with Harry Stein.

A message from our Publisher & CEO 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.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO