Mohammad Bakri (born 1953; , ) is a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

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

Akko Acre ( ), known in Hebrew as Akko (, ) and in Arabic as Akka (, ), is a city in the coastal plain region of the Northern District of Israel. The city occupies a strategic location, sitting in a natural harbour at the extremity of Haifa Bay on ...

. He studied acting and

Arabic literature Arabic literature ( / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is ''Adab (Islam), Adab'', which comes from a meaning of etiquett ...

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

in 1973 and graduated three years later. Bakri is married to Leila and together they have six children. His sons

Adam Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam). According to Christianity, Adam ...

, Ziad and Saleh Bakri are also actors.

Acting and film career

Bakri began his professional acting career in with

Habima Theatre The Habima Theatre ( ''Te'atron HaBima'', lit. "The Stage Theatre") is the List of national theatres, national theatre of Israel and one of the first Hebrew language theatres. It is located in Habima Square in the center of Tel Aviv. History ...

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

theater and al-Kasaba theater in

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ) is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the central West Bank, that serves as the administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusalem, at an average elevation of abov ...

. His one-man plays, ''The Pessoptimist'' (1986), ''The Anchor'' (1991), ''

Season of Migration to the North ''Season of Migration to the North'' ( ) is novel by the Sudanese writer Tayeb Salih, first published serially in the Beirut journal '' Hiwâr'' in 1966. It became Salih's best known work and is considered a classic of postcolonial literature. T ...

'' (1993) and ''Abu Marmar'' (1999), were performed in Hebrew and Arabic. He is featured in ''Cabaret Voltaire'', made by Israeli playwright Yuval Rozman. After a few years of acting in

and Israeli film, Bakri began to act in international films in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, the

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and

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. Bakri also directed two documentary films, including the '' Jenin, Jenin''.

Controversy

After Operation Defensive Shield in April 2002, Bakri interviewed residents of the Jenin refugee camp and produced a film based on their testimony, ''Jenin, Jenin''. Some of the survivors described a massacre of hundreds of people. After three showings the film was banned by the Israeli Film Board, which claimed it was not a documentary as it showed only one side of the story. Nevertheless, Bakri showed the film at the

and

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

cinematheques and Arab theaters such as Al-Midan in

. Bakri petitioned the High Court of Justice for prohibiting the screening of the film on the grounds that it distorted the truth. After a long fight, the court rejected the censor's decision. In 2004, the Israeli High Court finally upheld its earlier overturn of the ban, but joined the Film Board in labeling the film a "propagandistic lie", based on Israeli sources that acknowledged only 52 Palestinian deaths, 38 of whom Israeli sources argued were armed fighters. In response to the court's criticism, Bakri stated that he had "seen hundreds of films that deny and ignore what happened to Palestinians, yet eople haven'tcomplained or tried to ban any film." In 2007, five soldiers who fought in the Jenin refugee camp during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 sued the cinematheques in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for screening the film in the midst of the ban, and sued Bakri for 2.5 million NIS for producing the film. In July 2008, Bakri was acquitted of the charges. ''Jenin-Jenin'' earned two awards: the best film award at the Carthage International Film Festival, 2002, and the International Prize for Mediterranean Documentary Filmmaking and Reporting. Israeli right-wing group Im Tirtzu organized a campaign against Bakri. Im Tirtzu opposed a production of

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936) was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27, a g ...

's '' The House of Bernarda Alba'' in which Bakri played the role of Bernarda. The play was produced in 2012 at

's Tzavta Theater. Israel's Academy of the Performing Arts was behind the production. While refusing Im Tirtzu's request to intervene, Culture Minister Limor Livnat criticized the judgment of the theater's administration.

Filmography

Actor

Director

Awards and recognition

* Award for the Best Actor for the role in ''Private'' in

Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema The Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema (BAFICI, ) is an international festival of independent films organized each year in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. History The festival had its first edition in April 1999 and i ...

2005IMDb
/ref> * Best Actor Award for ''Private'' by Saverio Costanzo,

Locarno International Film Festival The Locarno International Film Festival is a major international film festival, held annually in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narr ...

2004 * Palestine Prize for Cinema 1999 Ramallah * Award for the Best Actor for the role in ''Haifa'' by Rashid Masharawi, Valencia Festival. 1997 * Award for the Best Actor for the role in ''Beyond the Walls II'' by Uri Barabash, Valencia Festival. 1994 * Award for the Best Actor for the role in ''Beyond the Walls'' by Uri Barabash, Israel. 1984 * Award for the best actor for the role in ''Season of Migration to the North'', by

Tayeb Salih Tayeb Salih (; 12 July 1929 – 18 February 2009) was a Sudanese writer, novelist, cultural journalist for the BBC Arabic programme as well as for Arabic journals, and a staff member of UNESCO. He is best known for his novel ''Season of Migration ...

, adapted and directed by Ouriel Zohar, in the Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre, Israel, 1993.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bakri, Mohammad 1953 births Living people Arab-Israeli film directors Israeli Arab actors Israeli film directors Israeli film producers Israeli male film actors Israeli male stage actors Tel Aviv University alumni