Renowned Palestinian actor and director Mohammed Bakri dies at 72

Palestinian actor Mohammed Bakri poses during the photocall for the film "Wajib" at the 70th Locarno International Film Festival in Locarno, Switzerland, on Aug. 5, 2017. (Urs Flueeler/Keystone/AP via CNN Newsource)

Renowned actor and director Mohammad Bakri died Wednesday at the age of 72, according to his family. Bakri had been suffering from heart problems. His funeral was held the same day in his town of birth, al-Bi’neh, in northern Israel.

“With profound sorrow and grief, we announce the passing of our beloved father, the actor Mohammed Bakri,” his son Saleh, also an actor, wrote on Instagram.

Bakri, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, began his career in the 1980s, performing in both Arabic and Hebrew in Palestinian and Israeli theatres and productions. His first film, Hanna K. was directed by Academy Award-winning Greek-French director Costa-Gavras.

Since then, Bakri performed in dozens of films, including the 1984 Israeli film ‘Beyond the Walls’ directed by Uri Barbash. The film, which tells the story of Palestinian and Israeli prisoners held together in an Israeli jail, won high acclaim in Israel at the time, and was nominated for an Academy Award.

“Mohammed Bakri hasn’t had an easy life in Israeli society,” Barbash told Ynet on Wednesday after news of Bakri’s passing, adding that the actor went through an “unbelievable … journey of boycotts, isolations, and ostracism.”

Bakri “was a nuclear reactor of emotions. He was emotionally connected to the sounds of his soul. There’s no doubt that as a creator and as an actor, he was totally involved in his works,” Barbash added.

Bakri also worked as a director, including directing the 2002 film ‘Jenin, Jenin’ in which he interviews residents of the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank who claim mass destruction and the killing of Palestinians by Israeli forces during Operation Defensive Shield.

The film drew a lot of controversy in Israel and was quickly banned by the Israeli Film Board from being screened. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, and in 2022 judges rejected an appeal by Bakri to lift the ban.

Despite the “crazy campaign” against Bakri and his film ‘Jenin, Jenin’, he “remained steadfast, both in his upright stance for the rights of his people, and his commitment for a shared life and peace for Israeli and Palestinians,” Israeli director Sinai Peter told Ynet news after Bakri’s passing.

The actor’s identity as a Palestinian had always been a prominent aspect in his work.

His solo show, “Bakri’s Monologue,” performed at the al-Kasaba Theatre in Ramallah, featured an adaptation of the writer Emile Habib’s book, ‘The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist’.

The book, one of the cornerstone texts about the identify of Palestinians in Israel, is a tragic and satiric story of Saeed, a Palestinian who becomes a citizen of Israel.

By Irene Nasser, CNN