Israeli actress Ania Bukstein makes debut in 'Game of Thrones'

What is known is that she filmed in Ireland, and she keeps her clothes on, a relatively rarity in GOT.

By HANNAH BROWN
Updated: MAY 16, 2016 08:14
ANIA BUKSTEIN debuts on ‘Game of Thrones.’ (photo credit: Courtesy)
ANIA BUKSTEIN debuts on ‘Game of Thrones.’
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Winter is coming to Israel as two Israeli actors join the stunning schemers on HBO’s Game of Thrones, one of the most popular cable series in history.
Ania Bukstein, the young, Moscow-born actress/singer who has appeared in such hit Israeli movies as The Secrets (in which she played an ultra-Orthodox scholar with lesbian leanings) and Rabies (where she is menaced by a killer and harassed by cops), made her Game of Thrones debut on Episode 4 of Season 6, which aired in the US on Sunday night and will air in Israel on YES Oh today at 4 a.m. – the same time it is broadcast around the world. It will be rebroadcast at 10 p.m. It will also be on YES VOD.
Bukstein, who recently starred in the Israeli television series False Flag, in which she played a preschool teacher caught in a web of espionage, has not revealed any details about the GOT script or her character, which is a closely guarded secret. Actors on the series only get to see their own lines, not copies of the entire script.
What is known is that she filmed in Ireland, and she keeps her clothes on, a relatively rarity in GOT. The episode is called Book of the Stranger and her character is named Kinvara.
According a website devoted to the show, Kinvara “is a Red Priestess, one of the high-ranking leaders in the religion of R’hllor, the Lord of Light. Her full title is ‘High Priestess of the Red Temple of Volantis, the Flametruth, the Light of Wisdom, and First Servant of the Lord of Light.’” Yousef “Joe” Sweid, an Israeli actor who recently starred as an escort on Johnny and the Knights of the Galilee and who has appeared in such Israeli movies as The Bubble and international films such as Agora, is also set to be in an upcoming GOT episode. He is on the television series American Odyssey, in which he plays a cross-dressing Muslim militia fighter. He and Bukstein did not see each other on the GOT set.
Many other Israeli actors have reportedly auditioned for GOT, among them Yuval Scharf, Neta Garty and Leem Lubany.