Israeli actress Swell Ariel Or has long cared about championing Israeli women and Jews, but her new role playing an Israel Defense Forces unit captain during the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attacks has her taking her advocacy to the next level.
Since the Tel Aviv-born star of Netflixs Israeli television series “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem” hit Hollywoods radar in 2021, shes been on a mission â and it doesnt involve chasing award nominations or lucrative brand endorsements like many rising young actresses in Tinseltown.
Instead, Or told , her mission focuses on authentic storytelling and meaningful narratives that accurately represent her people.
“I think that, of course, the Oscars matter and Hollywood, I mean, like, it’s like the Olympics for films and TV, right? But I’ve seen what it does to the industry to be driven by getting an award or getting accepted to an elite circle of intellectuals and art people,” she said. “I just feel as a storyteller that it hurts â that’s not what were telling stories for.”
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The 27-year-old actress recently went viral for echoing that sentiment on Instagram for ARISE for Israel, an alliance whose mission is to “reinforce Israels security and economy,” while promoting her new film, “Tankistas.” The plural form of “tankista,” the title means “tank crew members” or “tankers” in several languages.
“I dont care about the Oscars. I dont care about Hollywood. I dont care about doing the biggest, greatest career⦠I care about honest representation of who we are,” Or said about her upcoming film, which wrapped production earlier this year and is being edited in both English and Hebrew versions and is set for release next year.
The war drama, directed by Ayelet Menahemi (“Seven Blessings”) and inspired by true events, follows the IDFs first all-female tank unit and its 17-hour defense during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. As the units captain, Ors character leads three armored vehicles and engages Hamas militants in battle.
Or served in the IDF in real life before moving to Hollywood to pursue an acting and modeling career. She, along with fellow cast members, spent a good deal of time with the real-life women of the combat unit on which the film is based.
She also spoke about why the movie stands out among other combat films and female-focused superhero movies.
“The world is obsessed right now with female heroes, but so often, I feel like it’s from the wrong reasons, because it sells or whatever,” she said. “This film is very unique because if it was an American film about an all-female team company in World War II or whatever, it checks all the boxes of everything the world wants to see. But this is a feminist film written by women, based on a true story that actually happened, but it’s Israeli.”
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“It’s not a typical war film, thank God, because unlike so many films that try to bring a female hero to the front, the characters here are based on real women,” she continued. “They are diverse and human and complex, and it captures what the world so often fails to understand about Israeli women, especially about Israeli women in combat.”
Or has made a habit of sharing her convictions while appearing prominently on podcasts and in viral clips of media commentary, wh
