Mohammad Bakri
Palestinian actor and film director (1953–2025)
title: "Mohammad Bakri" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1953-births", "2025-deaths", "arab-israeli-film-directors", "israeli-arab-actors", "israeli-film-directors", "israeli-film-producers", "israeli-male-film-actors", "israeli-male-stage-actors", "israeli-theatre-directors", "tel-aviv-university-alumni"] description: "Palestinian actor and film director (1953–2025)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Bakri" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Palestinian actor and film director (1953–2025) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Mohammad Bakri |
| image | Mohammad Bakri.jpg |
| caption | Bakri in 2010 |
| native_name | محمد بكري |
| native_name_lang | ar |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Bi'ina, Israel |
| death_date | |
| death_place | Nahariya, Israel |
| alma_mater | Tel Aviv University |
| spouse | Leila |
| children | 6, including Adam, Ziad and Saleh |
| occupation | |
| yearsactive | 1983–2025 |
| :: |
| name = Mohammad Bakri | image = Mohammad Bakri.jpg | imagesize = | caption = Bakri in 2010 | native_name = محمد بكري | native_name_lang = ar | birthname = | birth_date = | birth_place = Bi'ina, Israel | death_date = | death_place = Nahariya, Israel | alma_mater = Tel Aviv University | spouse = Leila | domesticpartner = | children = 6, including Adam, Ziad and Saleh | occupation = | yearsactive = 1983–2025
Mohammad Bakri (, ; 27 November 1953 – 24 December 2025) was a Palestinian actor and film director with Israeli citizenship.
Early life
Bakri was born into an Arab-Muslim family in the village of Bi'ina in Israel on 27 November 1953. He went to elementary school in his hometown and received his secondary education in the nearby city of Akko. He then studied acting and Arabic literature at Tel Aviv University in 1973 and graduated three years later.
Acting and film career
Bakri began his professional acting career with Habima Theatre in Tel Aviv and al-Kasaba theatre 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 was featured in Cabaret Voltaire, by Israeli playwright Yuval Rozman.
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. He also directed two documentary films including 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 Tel Aviv and Jerusalem cinematheques and Arab theatres such as Al-Midan in Haifa.
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 [people have not] complained 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 2002 Carthage International Film Festival 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.{{cite news |title=Behind the curtain of a right-wing campaign against an Israeli-Arab actor |first=Michael |last=Handelzalts |url=https://www.haaretz.com/culture/arts-leisure/behind-the-curtain-of-a-right-wing-campaign-against-an-israeli-arab-actor-1.410100 |newspaper=Haaretz |date=2012-01-31 |access-date=7 June 2024}}
Bakri consistently emphasized his Palestinian identity throughout his career.
Personal life and death
Bakri was married to Leila and together they had six children. His sons Adam, Ziad and Saleh are also actors.
Bakri died from heart disease at the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya on 24 December 2025 at the age of 72.
Filmography
Actor
::data[format=table]
| 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 | The Lark Farm | 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 | Abu Adnan | Ameer Fakher Eldin | Palestine | |
| 2025 | All That's Left Of You | Older Sharif | Cherien Dabis | Germany, Cyprus | |
| :: |
Director
::data[format=table]
| 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
- Best Actor Award for 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
- 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
References
- "Mohammad Bakri".
- (25 December 2025). "Renowned Palestinian actor and director Mohammed Bakri dies at 72". CNN.
- Nirit Anderman and Sheren Falah Saab. (24 December 2025). "1953–2025 Renowned Palestinian Actor and Director Mohammad Bakri Dies at 72". Haaretz.
- "Yuval Rozman".
- Izenberg, Dan. (17 September 2007). "'Jenin, Jenin', now in court". [[The Jerusalem Post]].
- (22 June 2007). "Acclaimed Palestinian Actor Mohammad Bakri Faces Trial in Israel for Documentary 'Jenin, Jenin'".
- (26 January 2012). "Silencing Dissent in Israel".
- Anderman, Nirit. (28 July 2008). "I lie to save people". Haaretz.
- [https://www.haaretz.com/st/inter/Heng/magazine/new_face/f200913/index_eng%20_no_ad.html "The Face. Mohammad Bakri"], ''[[Haaretz]]'' Magazine. {{dead link. (June 2024)
- (24 December 2025). "Mohammad Bakri, director of 'Jenin, Jenin' passes away". Ynet News.
- Staff, Al Jazeera. "Palestinian actor and filmmaker Mohammad Bakri dies at 72".
- [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0049235/awards IMDb]
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