Gillo Pontecorvo

Born Gilberto Pontecorvo in Pisa, Italy, to a wealthy Jewish family, Gillo's lineage was about as unimpeachable as Italian Jewish lineage gets. His father was a textile industrialist, and his brothers included a renowned physicist and a geneticist. Clearly, smarts ran in the family, alongside, one presumes, a healthy skepticism for organized religion.

Pontecorvo himself gravitated towards anti-fascist journalism in his youth, fleeing Italy in 1938 for Paris, where he joined the Communist Party. He returned to Italy, fought in the resistance, and eventually, after a brief stint in chemistry (because why not?), found his calling in film. His Jewish identity, while undeniable by birth, seemed to take a back seat to his political convictions, which were, shall we say, rather pronounced.

His masterpiece, The Battle of Algiers, remains a powerful and controversial film, a semi-documentary style exploration of insurgency and counter-insurgency that still resonates today – perhaps a little too much for comfort in some circles. It's the kind of film that makes you think, or at least makes you squirm, which is certainly a mark of kveal-worthiness, even if his politics occasionally raised an eyebrow or two.

So, while his roots were deep in the ancient soil of Italian Jewry, Pontecorvo's real faith was in the proletariat and the power of celluloid to shake things up. A Jew by birth, a communist by choice, and a director by genius.