Avraham Stern and his wife, Roni. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The lineup for the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) will include the world premiere of Shoshana, a film about the founder of the Lehi underground Zionist armed organization, Avraham “Yair” Stern.

From French screenwriter Laurence Coriat and director Michael Winterbottom, the film is set in British Mandate Palestine and follows two British police officers — Thomas Wilkins (Douglas Booth) and Geoffrey Morton (Harry Marling) — in Israel as they try to find Stern and stop his plan for attacks against the British mandate. The Zionist paramilitary fighter and poet is played by actor Aury Elby. The film — which is in English, Hebrew, Russian, Arabic — is a historical thriller that “weaves a story of star-crossed love with one of political radicalization,” according to TIFF.

TIFF announced on Monday its first lineup of films for this year’s festival. It revealed 60 official selections for the gala and special presentations programs for this year’s festival, with films from 70 countries. The festival will take place September 7–17.

Stern was born on Dec. 23, 1907, in Suvalk, which was a border town in north-eastern Poland near Lithuania. In 1926, when the sixth grade of his Hebrew school was shut down before he could finish his studies, he moved to Jerusalem with a special emigration visa to complete his schooling. He remained in the country and later studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he graduated with a MA degree in Humanities.

Before founding the Lohamei Herut Israel (Lehi), Stern was one of the first to join Irgun Zvai Leumi, a well-armed underground, independent army also known as Etzel or The Irgun. It was founded by former Haganah commander Avraham Tehomi and 19 other former Haganah commanders. It engaged in hostile activities against the British government in Israel and Stern was chief undercover agent in charge of purchasing arms abroad and overseeing their transportation to Israel. Stern wrote in a published pamphlet that the organization was fighting “against the Foreign Occupier and its wicked schemes.”

When Etzel declared a ceasefire with the British, Stern, who opposed the move, left the organization and set up Lehi, Freedom Fighters of Israel. In its official declaration, Lehi said its “methods will be armed struggle using personal acts of terror, until the British authorities are expelled and a Hebrew authority is established in its place.” Members took part in weapons training; learned tactics of guerilla warfare and how to use grenades; and taught to build bombs, mines and car bombs. In one attack, Lehi bombed the immigration offices in Haifa after the British government decided to deport Jewish refugees who had arrived to Israel on the Atlantic.

Stern was killed on Feb. 12, 1942 in circumstances that remain under dispute to the present day, with his supporters alleging that he was shot dead from behind while handcuffed by British officers shortly after he was taken prisoner.