As In the Hand of Dante arrives on Netflix, Jewish-American artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel praises Gadot’s performance, rejects boycott calls and revisits his own complicated relationship with Israel, Judaism and his controversial Palestinian drama MiralLast summer, when the main front of the war was still Gaza, Gal Gadot found herself at the center of a public and painful storm. When the Venice Film Festival announced that the Hollywood Israeli star’s new film, In the Hand of Dante, would premiere there, pro-Palestinian protests quickly followed.The controversy peaked as the festival opened in late August. Hundreds of international filmmakers and artists published an open letter urging the festival leadership to take a clear position condemning the ongoing war in Gaza. The group Venice4Palestine also called for the invitations of celebrities who had publicly supported Israel to be revoked, including Gadot and Gerard Butler, who also appears in In the Hand of Dante. Media reports claimed Gadot had canceled her appearance because of the anti-Israel protest and attacks against her, but she later issued an unusual clarification saying she had not planned to attend the festival in the first place.When the film’s director, the celebrated Jewish-American artist Julian Schnabel, appeared in Venice, he was asked at a press conference about Gadot and Butler. “I think there’s no reason to boycott artists,” he said. “I chose those actors because of their merit as actors, and they did an exceptional job in the film, and that’s about it.” Schnabel also declined to weigh in on Gaza, saying the discussion should focus on the film rather than that subject.In our meeting at a restaurant overlooking the beach on Venice’s Lido, Schnabel again defended Gadot, Butler and his decision to cast them. “What Butler and Gal Gadot did in my movie as actors was amazing, and the rest is not important,” he told ynet. “The casting of Gal created a big mess that has nothing to do with the film. Gal did phenomenal work. Fifteen years ago, I made a film about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Miral, and everything I had to say about that conflict, I already said.”Schnabel continued to reject the calls for a boycott and voiced unequivocal support for Gadot. He noted that at the most recent Jerusalem Film Festival, Gadot received an award honoring her contribution to international cinema and her success, and that in her speech she spoke about peace. “The right in Israel didn’t like it,” he said, adding that it was an Israeli right-wing extremist who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.6 View gallery Julian Schnabel (Photo: Kate Green, Getty Images)In the Hand of Dante arrives on Netflix next Wednesday. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Nick Tosches and follows a manuscript of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy. After the ancient text is found in the Vatican Library, it passes from a priest to a senior mobster in New York, where Tosches is asked to authenticate it. Like Dante, he then embarks on a journey of his own.Schnabel assembled a major cast, including Al Pacino, Jason Momoa, Oscar Isaac and even Martin Scorsese, who appears as an elderly sage who influences Dante as he writes The Divine Comedy. “We’re good friends. I actually painted a portrait of him,” Schnabel said of Scorsese. “Marty has always been very supportive of my work as a filmmaker. He really wanted to play this part, and I thought there was nobody else who could do it. What Marty does in the film is not a cameo. There is depth there.”Gadot plays a dual role: Giulietta, the wife of Nick Tosches, and Gemma Donati, Dante Alighieri’s wife in the Middle Ages. Isaac likewise plays both Tosches and Dante. In the film, Gadot appears in suggestive sex scenes with Isaac, including one in which she is filmed like Venus rising from the sea, her long hair covering her groin while her hand covers her chest.Why did you choose Gadot, and why for a dual role?