Israeli actress Hadar Ratzon-Rotem stars as Nadia Majald, alongside Sacha Baron Cohen as Eli Cohen, in Netflix’s latest espionage thriller series released on Friday (September 6).
The six-episode mini-series, written and directed by Gideon Raff and Max Perry, follows the true story of the espionage activities of Eli Cohen (Sacha Baron Cohen), an Israeli Mossad spy in Syria in the 1960s.
Nadia Majald (also Nadia Cohen) is the wife of Eli Cohen.
Eli Cohen was born in Egypt in 1924 but was expelled from the country in 1956. He immigrated to Israel where he met and married Nadia Majald — a Jewish immigrant from Iraq — in 1959.
Nadia and Eli settled in Bat Yam, a coastal city south of Tel Aviv on Israel’s Mediterranean coast.
Eli joined Mossad in 1960 and went undercover in Syria in 1962 after living in Argentina for some time. He was able to infiltrate the social circles of senior Syrian politicians and military officers while posing as a businessman. He obtained and relayed crucial intelligence to the Israeli authorities that reportedly played a role in Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-Day War.
During the years of his mission in Syria (1962-1965), he returned to Israel to see Nadia Majald and their children only once, in 1964. The Syrian authorities blew his cover in 1965 and he was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging the same year.
Nadia and Eli had three children; Sophie Ben-Dor, Irit Peleg and Shai Cohen,
Who is actress Hadar Ratzon-Rotem who plays Nadia Majald?
Hadar Ratzon-Rotem, an Israeli actress, was born in Jerusalem in February 1978. She grew up in Hod Hasharon and served in the IDF’s Intelligence Corps. She studied at the Yoram Levinstein Acting Studio.
One of Hadar’s first roles, after she completed her studies, was the part of Israeli singer Aliza Azikri in the theatrical production Sigal. Sigal was based on the life of the Greek singer Aris San (played by Erez Regev) who was a popular musician in Israel in the 1950s and 1960s. Hadar’s character, Azikri, was San’s lover.
After appearing in a number of Israeli theatrical productions, Hadar ventured into TV and movies.
Ratson-Rotem was seen in Rendition (2007) as the CIA operative Safiya, alongside Jake Gyllenhaal as Douglas Freeman, Reese Witherspoon as Isabella Fields El-Ibrahimi, and Meryl Streep as Corrine Whitman.
She is also known for playing Leila Qasab in the Israeli TV drama series Prisoners of War (2009-2012) and appeared as Tovah Rivlin in Homeland.