Mohammad Bakri
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| Mohammad Bakri | |||||||
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| Born | Mohammad Bakri 1953 Bi'ina, Israel |
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| Years active | 1983-present | ||||||
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Mohammad Bakri (1953- ) (Arabic: محمد بكري, Hebrew: מוחמד בכרי; also spelled Mohammed or Muhammad) is an Arab actor and director with Israeli citizenship, known throughout Israel and the Arab world.
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[edit] Early life
Mohammed Bakri was born in the Arab village of Bi'ina in the central Galilee in 1953. He went to elementary school in his hometown and received his secondary education in the nearby city of Acre. He studied acting and Arabic literature at Tel Aviv University in 1973 and graduated three years later.[1]
[edit] Actor and filmmaker
Bakri began his professional acting career in plays in several theaters in Israel and the West Bank notably the Habima Theatre in Tel-Aviv, the Haifa theater and al-Kasaba theater in Ramallah. During this period he became well-known as a star in Palestinian film and Israeli television. His one-man plays, "The Pessoptimist," 1986, "The Anchor," 1994, "Season of Migration to the North," and "Abu Marmar," 1999, were performed as often in Hebrew as in Arabic, a reflection of his early wish to "tell the truth of Palestinian history – and tell it first and foremost to Israelis."[2]
After a few years of acting in Palestinian and Israeli film, Bakri began to act in international films in countries such as France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Canada. Bakri also directed two documentary films including the controversial "Jenin, Jenin". Almost all of Bakri's films were influenced by the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and internal struggles of the Palestinian people.[1]
[edit] Jenin Jenin Controversy
During Operation Defensive Shield in April 2002, the Israeli Defense Forces invaded a Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin. Major portions of the camp were leveled and many people were killed. The Israeli military refused to allow journalists in to document the killings, and denied entry to human rights organizations that had come to assist the injured, leading to a rapid cycle of rumors that a massacre had occurred. Jenin remained sealed for days after the invasion. Stories of civilians being buried alive in their homes as they were demolished, and of smoldering buildings covering crushed bodies, spread throughout the Arab world. Various casualty figures circulated, reaching into the mid-hundreds.
Bakri entered the camp as soon as was feasible, and in the midst of great controversy and confusion over the results of the invasion, in both the Arabic and Hebrew press, began to collect oral testimony from Jenin residents. Out of this effort came the film Jenin Jenin, documenting both the trauma of the survivors, and an utterly wasted camp. Some of the survivors described a massacre of hundreds of people. Bakri did not interview Israeli officials.[3] The film title referenced Palestinian taxidrivers calling "Ramallah, Ramallah, Ramallah," or "Jenin! Jenin!" to Palestinian workers and travellers moving through Israeli checkpoints.
Soon after it was released, after only three showings, Jenin Jenin was banned by the Israeli Film Board in 2002, accusing the film of being libelous for calling itself a documentary despite documenting only one 'side' of the story. Nevertheless, Bakri showed the film at the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem cinemateques and at Arab theaters such as Al-Midan in Haifa.[2]
Bakri petitioned the High Court of Justice against the censor 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 which acknowledged only 52 Palestinian deaths, 38 of whom Israeli sources argued were armed fighters.[3]
In 2007, Ofer Ben-Natan, Doron Keidar, Nir Oshri, Adam Arbiv and Yonatan Van-Kaspel sued the cinamatheques 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.[3] Ofer Ben Natan, Doron Keidar, Nir Oshri, Adam Arbiv and Yonatan Van Kaspel do not appear in "Jenin Jenin," and their names are never mentioned in the film.[2]
Bakri is being represented by attorney Avigdor Feldman. Feldman told Haaretz, "Bakri doesn't say anything in this film. The people who talk are those he filmed. So the residents of the refugee camp say things which sometimes are true and sometimes not. It's a movie. It reflects the subjective understanding of the speakers. Sometimes they say things that are harsher [than they actually were] because that is how he experienced it."[3]
The Mohammad Bakri Defense Committee adds: "For his artistic integrity and his focus on the experiences and narratives of his fellow Palestinians, Mohammad Bakri faces the potential of financial ruin in the face of spurious legal charges and dubious claims of defamation." They add that the scandal has amounted to repression of Palestinian self-expression, and that "the importance of this case reaches beyond Bakri as an individual."[2]
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.
[edit] Family
Bakri is married with six children. His son Saleh is following in his father's footsteps, currently having a young acting career. He won the Best Supporting Actor award from the Israeli Film Academy for his first role in a movie, The Bands Visit (2007).[4]
[edit] Filmography
- "Private" by Saverio Costanzo (Italy) 2004
- "The Olive Harvest" by Hannah Elias (Palestine) 2001
- "Desperado Square" by Benny Toraty (Italy/Israel) 1997
- "Haifa" by Rashid Masharawi (Palestine/Netherlands) 1997
- "Sous les pieds des femmes" by Rachid Krim (France) 1995
- "The Milky Way" by Ali Nassar (Israel) 1994
- "The Tale of the Three Jewels" by Michel Khleifi (Palestine/Belgium) 1994
- "Beyond the Walls II" by Uri Barabash (Israel) 1994
- "Cup Final (film)" by Eran Riklis (Israel) 1991
- "Foreign Nights" by Izidore K. Musallam (Canada) 1989
- "Rami og Julie" by Erik Clausen (Denmark) 1988
- "Esther" by Amos Gitai (Israel/UK) 1986
- "Beyond the Walls" by Uri Barabash (Israel) 1984
- "Hanna K." by Constantin Costa-Gavras (Israel/France) 1983
[edit] Documentaries
- "1948" (Palestine/Israel) 1999
- "Jenin, Jenin" (Palestine) 2002
[edit] Awards
- Golden Leopard for the Best Actor for the role in "Private" by Saverio Costanzo, Locarno International Film Festival 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
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bakri, Mohammad |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Bakri, Mohammed; Bakri, Muhammed |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Palestinian actor, producer, director |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1953 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bi'ina |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
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