Mohammad Bakri

Mohammad Bakri (born 1953; Arabic: محمد بكري, Hebrew: מוחמד בכרי) is a Palestinian actor and film director.^[1]

Mohammad Bakri
Mohammad Bakri, 2010
Born	Mohammad Bakri (1953-11-27) 27 November 1953 (age 70) Bi'ina, Israel
Alma mater	Tel Aviv University
Years active	1983–present

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. He studied acting and Arabic literature at Tel Aviv University in 1973 and graduated three years later.^[1]

Bakri is married to Leila^[2] and together they have six children. His sons Adam, Ziad and Saleh Bakri are also actors.

Acting and film career

Bakri began his professional acting career in with Habima Theatre in Tel Aviv, Haifa theater and al-Kasaba theater in Ramallah. His one-man plays, The Pessoptimist (1986), The Anchor (1991), Season of Migration to the North (1993) and Abu Marmar (1999), were performed in Hebrew and Arabic. He is featured in Cabaret Voltaire, made by Israeli playwright Yuval Rozman.^[3]

After a few years of acting in Palestinian and Israeli film, Bakri began to act in international films in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Canada and Italy. 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.^[4] 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 Tel Aviv and Jerusalem cinematheques and Arab theaters such as Al-Midan in Haifa.^[5]

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.^[4] 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 [people haven't] complained or tried to ban any film."^[6]

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.^[4] In July 2008, Bakri was acquitted of the charges.^[7]

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's The House of Bernarda Alba in which Bakri played the role of Bernarda. The play was produced in 2012 at Tel Aviv'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.^[8]

Filmography

Actor

Year	Title	Role	Director(s)	Country	Notes
1983	Hanna K.	Selim Bakri	Constantin Costa-Gavras	Israel, France
1984	Beyond the Walls	Issan	Uri Barabash, Eran Preis	Israel
1986	Esther	Mordecai	Amos Gitai	Israel, UK
1987	Death Before Dishonor	Gavril	Terry Leonard	U.S.
1988	Rami og Julie	Rami's cousin	Erik Clausen	Denmark
1989	Ha Miklat		Rashid Masharawi	Israel	Short film
1989	Foreign Nights	Morod	Izidore K. Musallam	Canada
1991	Cup Final	Ziad	Eran Riklis	Israel
1993	The Mummy Lives	Alexatos	Gerry O'Hara	U.S.
1994	Beyond the Walls II	Issan	Uri Barabash	Israel
1994	The Tale of the Three Jewels	Aida's father	Michel Khleifi	Palestine, Belgium
1994	The Milky Way	Mahmud	Ali Nassar	Israel
1995	Sous les pieds des femmes	Amin 1996	Rachid Krim	France
1996	Haifa	Haifa	Rashid Masharawi	Palestine, Netherlands
1997	Desperado Square	Avram Mandabon	Benny Toraty	Israel
2001	The Body	Abu Yusef	Jonas McCord	U.S.
2001	The Olive Harvest	Raeda's father	Hannah Elias	Palestine
2004	Private	Mohammad B.	Saverio Costanzo	Italy
2005	Yasmine's song	Abu Odeh	Najwa Najjar	Palestine	Short film
2007	La Masseria Delle Allodole	Nazim	Paolo and Vittorio Taviani	Italy
2010	Marriage and Other Disasters	Bauer	Nina Di Majo	Italy
2011	The Salt Fisherman		Ziad Bakri	Palestine	Short film
2013	Stay Human - The Reading Movie	Narrator	Fulvio Renzi	Italy	Chapter XI
2014	Tyrant	Sheik Rashid	Gideon Raff	U.S.	TV series
2016	Of Kings and Prophets	Samuel	Adam Cooper, Bill Collage	U.S.	TV series
2016	The Night Of	Tariq	James Marsh	U.S.	Miniseries
2017	The Bureau	Shahannah	Éric Rochant	France	5 episodes, TV series
2017	Wajib	Abu Shadi	Annemarie Jacir	Palestine
2017	American Assassin	Ashani	Michael Cuesta	U.S.
2020	Homeland	Abdu Qadir G’ulom		U.S.	8 episodes, T.V. Series
2021	The Stranger

Director

Year	Title	Country	Notes
1999	1948	Palestine, Israel	Documentary film
2002	Jenin, Jenin	Palestine	Documentary film
2004	Since You Left	Israel	Documentary film
2009	Zahra	Palestine	Documentary film

Awards and recognition

• Award for the Best Actor for the role in Private in Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema 2005^[9]
• Best Actor Award for Private by Saverio Costanzo, Locarno International Film Festival 2004^[9]
• 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, adapted and directed by Ouriel Zohar, in the Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre, Israel, 1993.

References

1. "Mohammad Bakri". webgaza.net. Retrieved 7 June 2024.
2. "The Face | Mohammad Bakri", Haaretz Magazine. ^{[permanent dead link]}
3. "Yuval Rozman". www.la-marelle.org. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
4. Izenberg, Dan (17 September 2007). "'Jenin, Jenin', now in court". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on 17 January 2021. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
5. "Acclaimed Palestinian Actor Mohammad Bakri Faces Trial in Israel for Documentary 'Jenin, Jenin'". Democracy Now!. 22 June 2007. Retrieved 7 June 2024.
6. "Silencing Dissent in Israel". Alternative News. 26 January 2012. Archived from the original on 3 July 2013.
7. Anderman, Nirit (28 July 2008). "I lie to save people". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 3 November 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
8. Handelzalts, Michael (31 January 2012). "Behind the curtain of a right-wing campaign against an Israeli-Arab actor". Haaretz. Retrieved 7 June 2024.
9. IMDb

External links

• Mohammad Bakri at IMDb