Movie producer Harvey Chertok, right, and his wife, Bobbi, meet with actor John Shea on the set of the movie about Israeli master spy Elie Cohen, whom he portrayed.
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More InformationApril 17, 2008
In 1987, Harvey Chertok made a film about Elie Cohen, the Israeli spy who, before his execution at the hands of the Syrians, is credited with uncovering information from Syria that helped Israel win the Six-Day War.
A couple of years ago, Chertok met with Elie’s brother, Maurice, himself a former Israeli intelligence agent. Maurice asked Chertok to make sure that his brother not be forgotten.
That has proved an unexpectedly easy task. With the 40th anniversary of the war last year, and with Israel’s 60th this year, Chertok has found a new wave of interest in his film about a true Israeli hero. He has been asked to show The Impossible Spy to Jewish organizations around the country.
The Impossible Spy will be screened on Tuesday, April 29, at 7:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center of Central New Jersey, and Chertok will be there to tell his story. To his delight, he said, the DVD version is as bright and sharp as any new movie, and audiences are finding the story as moving as ever.
Egyptian-born Cohen, passing himself off as a Syrian businessman, managed to ingratiate himself with the highest levels of the Damascus regime. He was on his way to becoming a cabinet minister — until his cover was blown in 1965. The information he had already passed on, however, served Israel so well in the war two years later, he is often credited with survival of the Jewish state.
Cohen’s story was a natural for Hollywood. Eli Ben-Hanan’s book about him, Our Man in Damascus, was published in 1968, and 11 different producers wanted to put that story on the screen, said Chertok — but none had been able to get cooperation from the Mossad and the Israeli government.
Chertok didn’t know anything about that struggle. On a 1982 visit to Israel with his wife Bobbi, the producer heard the Cohen story from their guide. “From that moment, it became an obsession,” he said.
Eli Wallach, left, and John Shea worked together in Jerusalem on The Impossible Spy, a film about Israeli agent Elie Cohen, to be screened at the JCC on April 29.
For the next five years he battled to pull all the elements together. Finally, drawing on past contacts at the BBC, he managed to bring the British giant on board. John Shea signed on to play Cohen, and Eli Wallach agreed to play his Mossad boss, one of the few overtly Jewish roles for the veteran Jewish actor.
Writers Douglas Livingstone and Marty Ross pulled a script together using accounts from The Jerusalem Post, The New York Times, and personal interviews. The CIA tried to block access to files they needed, but they managed to acquire them through the Freedom of Information Act.
Their script apparently was so accurate — unlike versions from Hollywood heavy hitters also trying to film the story — it won approval from the Mossad and even from Cohen’s widow. The only change she asked for were in scenes of him smoking. “She said he didn’t smoke, so we took those out,” Chertok said.
With a crew of 79, it was the largest movie production yet in Israel. Chertok decided to make it for television instead of theaters, to speed up its release. It was broadcast by HBO later that November, to immediate and widespread critical acclaim. It went on to become the BBC’s all-time best-selling movie.
Eventually, it faded from view. Chertok went on to other challenges, among them the nine-hour series on the history of art shown on PBS, Hermitage Masterpieces, filmed in St. Petersburg. That might have been the end of Chertok’s involvement with the Cohen story, were it not for his encounter with Maurice. “I didn’t know about him when we made the movie,” Chertok.
Maurice told him he didn’t know his brother was the agent providing some of the messages from Damascus, revealing Syria’s plans to attack Israel, which he was charged with decoding. His first clue came when Elie used some words referring to private family matters, like his baby daughter’s attempts to walk. Even then, when he confronted him, Elie steadfastly denied he was a spy, insisting that he was just a businessman.
When Chertok accepted Maurice’s request to keep alive his brother’s story, he also took on another challenge — to help recover Elie Cohen’s body, which is buried in Syria. The Cohen family has been trying for many years to bring his remains back for proper burial in Israel.
Chertok approached U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but received no reply; he was more successful with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who visited Syria just after Rice did last year. She promised to try to help, though so far without success.
Chertok — like Maurice Cohen — is determined to carry on with that struggle.
More Information
What: Screening of The Impossible Spy, along with a post-screening discussion with executive producer Harvey Chertok
Where: Wilf Jewish Community Campus, 1391 Martine Ave., Scotch Plains
When: Tuesday, April 29, at 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $8 JCC members and members of sponsoring organizations, seniors, and students; $10 general admission; $2 additional at the door.
The event is hosted by the Jewish Film Festival of Central New Jersey, and is cosponsored by the JCC of Central NJ, the Jewish Federation of Central NJ’s Jewish Community Relations Council, Congregation Beth Israel, Temple Beth O’r/Beth Torah, and Temple Emanu-El.
For more information, contact Simone Klein or 908-889-8800, ext. 214.
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