Oscar Isaac and Evangeline Lilly will be forgoing the superhero costumes for this one, and they will instead be lending their voices to the animated historic epic, Legend of Destruction. The unique animation has been more than eight years in the making and is led by director Gigi Dar.
Isaac will be voicing Ben Batikh, from whose perspective the story is told, a naive but kind man who becomes hardened and zealous after becoming a follower of rebel leader Bar Giora, voiced by Billy Zane. As reported in Deadline, Isaac said of taking on the role, “It is a story that has great historical sweep, but also is very intimate, it is about a personal relation between the lead character and God.”
The story is set in 66 AD in Judea, which is under Roman rule. It tells of social inequality and polarization within Jerusalem devolving into a full-blown civil war between the zealots and Jewish aristocracy. The film will end with the Roman armies crushing the Jewish people, and destroying their temple which leads to the 2000-year exile of the Jews, a profound moment in the people’s history.
Of his motivation for making this film, Dar states,
“This story is at the core of Jewish existence, it is one of the darkest moments of my people, yet few know it. I felt compelled to tell it.”
Lilly plays the last Jewish queen, Berenice of Cilicia, who did her best to protect her people from Roman persecution and tried to save the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, even at the cost of her life. Of the story, the actress says, “This film is sweeping, it’s tragic, it’s really brutal and sad, but it’s true.”
The visual style will be rather unique given that it consists of over 1500 painted stills by artists David Polonsky and Michael Faust, known for their Oscar-nominated animated films Waltz with Bashir (2008) and The Congress (2013). The paintings will be edited together to create the cinematic landscape for the destruction and violence that happened at this turning point in history.
Elliot Gould will also be voicing Rabbi Ben Zakkai, one of the greatest sages in Jewish history. Isaac believes that, though this film is a historical one, he finds it “terrifyingly relevant,” given the state of polarization in the world today as well as the rise in antisemitism over the last few years, stories like this only prove how history manages to come back full circle.
