Mahmoud (or Mahmud) Shalaby, or Mahmood Shalabi (; or ; born 19 July 1982), is an Israeli Palestinian actor, rapper, and musician. He has acted in several films produced or co-produced in France and received the award for best male actor at the Film Festival of La Réunion in 2011 for the role of Naïm in the film ''

A Bottle in the Gaza Sea ''A Bottle in the Gaza Sea'' (, ) is a 2011 drama directed by Thierry Binisti based on a novel of the same name. The film, an international co-production shot in French, Hebrew and Arabic, is based on the French young adult novel ''Une bouteille da ...

'', directed by Thierry Binisti and adapted from the novel ''Une bouteille dans la mer de Gaza'' by Valérie Zenatti. He was honored with two other awards at the same festival. He was a member of the Palestinian hip hop group MWR, which toured Palestine, Europe, and the United States.

Life and career

Shalaby grew up in a poor neighborhood in

Acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

marked by urban violence. In 1998, he started the rap and hip-hop group, MWR, with his friends Waseem Aker, Richard Savo, and Charlie Shaabi. The lyrics in their songs often touched on the Palestinian struggle and the issues of drugs and crime in their society. He was interviewed in 2008 in the documentary '' Slingshot Hip Hop'' by Jackie Reem Salloum, which covered Palestinian hip-hop in three geographic areas: Israel, the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, and the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

. Shalaby appeared in the documentary alongside the Palestinian hip hop group

DAM A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

, who he has frequently collaborated with musically. Before beginning his acting career he managed a

café A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually called ''nargi ...

. He was later contacted by director

Keren Yedaya Keren Yedaya (; born in 1972) is an Israeli filmmaker. She was born in the United States, but her family moved to Israel in 1975 when she was just three. She trained at the Camera Obscura School of Art in Tel Aviv. Biography Yedaya is known as a ...

, who gave him his first role in a non-documentary film. Shalaby played the role of Toufik in ''

Jaffa Jaffa (, ; , ), also called Japho, Joppa or Joppe in English, is an ancient Levantine Sea, Levantine port city which is part of Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, located in its southern part. The city sits atop a naturally elevated outcrop on ...

'', directed by Keren Yedaya and released in 2009, and the role of the Jewish-Algerian singer

Salim Halali Salim Halali (or Hilali; ; born Simon Halali; 30 July 1920 – 25 June 2005) was an Algerian singer who performed Algerian music and Arabic Andalusian classical music. He was a pop singer rather than a professional performer of traditional Arab ...

in ''

Free Men "Free Men" (1966) is a science fiction short story by American writer Robert A. Heinlein. It was his only short story known to have been published after " All You Zombies". It originally appeared in his collection '' The Worlds of Robert A. Hei ...

'', directed by

Ismaël Ferroukhi Ismaël Ferroukhi (born 26 June 1962) is a French- Moroccan film director and screenwriter. Ferroukhi was born in Kenitra. He gained exposure with his 1992 short film ''L'Exposé'', which won the Kodak Prize at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. Fol ...

and released in 2011. In 2010, Shalaby appeared with

Mohammed Bakri Mohammad Bakri (born 1953; , ) is a Palestinian actor and film director. Personal life Bakri was born in the village of Bi'ina in Israel. He went to elementary school in his hometown and received his secondary education in the nearby city of ...

in an Arabic short film, ''The Clock and the Man'' (,
Page giving the title of ''The Clock and the Man'' in Hebrew), adapted from a short story of the same name by the exiled Palestinian novelist

Samira Azzam Samira Azzam () (13 September 1927 – 8 August 1967) was a Palestinian writer, broadcaster, and translator known for her collections of short stories. In 1948, Azzam fled Palestine with her husband and family in the Nakba. Her collections of sto ...

(1927-1967). Shalaby also played Naim, a young Palestinian from

Gaza Gaza may refer to: Places Palestine * Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea ** Gaza City, a city in the Gaza Strip ** Gaza Governorate, a governorate in the Gaza Strip Mandatory Palestine * Gaza Sub ...

, whose mother was played by

Hiam Abbass Hiam Abbass (; ; born 30 November 1960), also spelled Hiyam Abbas, is a Palestinian actress and film director with Israeli and French citizenship. She is known for her roles in films such as ''The Syrian Bride'' (2004), '' Paradise Now'' (2005) ...

, opposite a young Israeli woman, Tal, played by

Agathe Bonitzer Agathe Bonitzer (born 24 April 1989) is a French actress. She has appeared in more than twenty films since 1996. Career In August 2018, it was announced that Bonitzer would star in the Netflix science fiction series ''Osmosis''. The series prem ...

, in a film directed by Thierry Binisti, ''

''. The film was released in France on February 8, 2012.
Interview of Mahmoud Shalaby by Al-Arabiya News, 3 May 2010^,
Page on Allociné The film was inspired by a novel by Valérie Zenatti, ''Une bouteille dans la mer de Gaza''. In The Other Son (2012 film), The Other Son by

Lorraine Lévy Lorraine Lévy (born 29 January 1964) is a French screenwriter, film and stage director, and playwright. She is the sister of writer Marc Levy. Life and career After studying literature and law, Lévy became a screenwriter for Jean-Loup Dabadi ...

, released in France on April 4, 2012, Shalaby played Bilal, ostensibly the brother of Yacine ( Mehdi Dehbi), but in fact the brother of Joseph ( Jules Sitruk), accidentally exchanged at birth in the confusion created by a bombing. With an interest in

Sufi music Sufi music refers to the devotional music of the Sufis, inspired by the works of Sufi poets like Rumi, Hafiz, Bulleh Shah, Amir Khusrow, and Khwaja Ghulam Farid. Qawwali is the best-known form of Sufi music and is most commonly found in ...

, Shalaby plays the

kawala The ''kāwālā'' ( or ; also called ''salamiya'', ) is an end-blown cane flute used in Arabic music. It is similar to the '' ney'' but has six finger holes, while the ''ney'' has seven (including one in the back). The ''kawala'' comes in up t ...

,
Mahmoud Shalaby plays ''Bayat Mi'' on the kawala a traditional Egyptian flute, that is seen and heard in '' The Other Son (2012 film), The Other Son''. Shalaby was shortlisted in the category of César Award for Most Promising Actor, Most Promising Actor for the

38th César Awards The 38th Annual César Awards ceremony, presented by the French Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques (Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma), was held on 22 February 2013, at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. The ceremony was chaired b ...

in 2013 for his appearance in ''

''.
Shortlist on Allociné, accessed 30 January 2013^,
Photo taken during the Césars award dinner, accessed 30 January 2013 In the 2016 film In Between, he played Ziad, the boyfriend of the film’s protagonist Leila, played by Mouna Hawa. Shalaby describes himself as "an Israeli Palestinian".

Filmography

* 2007 in film, 2007: ''

'' (documentary), dir. Elliot Manches: himself *

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

: '' Slingshot Hip Hop'' (documentary), dir. Jackie Reem Salloum: himself *

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

: ''

'', dir.

: Toufik *

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

: ''The Clock and the Man'', dir. Gazi Abu Baker: Fathi *

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

: ''

'', dir.

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

: ''

'', dir. Thierry Binisti: Naïm *

: '' The Other Son (2012 film), The Other Son'', dir.

: Bilal, brother of Yacine (as Mahmood Shalabi) *

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

: ''Shkufim'' (Hebrew for "Transparents"), dir. Mushon Salmona: Raaid

Awards

* Film Festival of La Réunion 2011: Best male actor ("Mascarin de la meilleure interprétation masculine") for the role of Naïm in ''

'' (the film also won the "Prix du Public" and the "Prix Coup de cœur du Jury Jeune").
Palmarès festival Réunion 2011

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shalaby, Mahmoud 21st-century Israeli male actors Israeli male film actors 21st-century Palestinian actors Palestinian male actors Palestinian male film actors 1982 births People from Acre, Israel Living people Arab citizens of Israel Israeli rappers Palestinian rappers Israeli flautists