Palestinian actor and filmmaker Mohammad Bakri dies at 72

Mohammad Bakri, a well-known Palestinian filmmaker and actor, has passed away in northern Israel, bringing his five-decade career to an end. He is one of the most influential figures in Palestinian cinema.

According to hospital officials, Bakri had heart and lung issues and passed away on Wednesday at Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya.

A renowned artist whose work directly challenged Israeli narratives and whose decades-long legal battles over censorship became a defining chapter of Palestinian cultural resistance after his death has been forgotten.

The 72-year-old was best known for his 2002 documentary, Jenin, Jenin, which gathered Palestinian residents’ testimony following a 52-person Palestinians-fatally-perished Israeli military operation there.

The movie sparked years of controversy in Israel, but it also elevated Bakri’s creative status, which would rule his entire life.

The Supreme Court upheld the prohibition in 2022, &nbsp, deeming it defamatory, despite Israeli authorities’ ban on the documentary in 2021.

Bakri stated at the time that the verdict was unfair and that it was “neutering my truth.”

Five soldiers sued Bakri, and the court ordered all copies taken and online links removed, leading to a final judgment against him that cost hundreds of thousands of shekels.

In a statement released earlier this year for the British Film Institute, Bakri stated, “Israel considers me their enemy, not my enemy.” They view my filmmaking as a traitor.

Bakri, an Israeli-born Palestinian national who studied Arabic literature and theater at Tel Aviv University, was born in 1953 in the Galilee village of Bi’ina. In Costa-Gavras’ Hanna K, he made his powerful acting debut, playing a Palestinian refugee attempting to reclaim his family’s home, at the age of 30.

In the 1984 Israeli film Beyond the Walls, his portrayal of a Palestinian prisoner won him both an Academy Award nomination and praise.

His career, however, was shaped by Bakri’s commitment to telling Palestinian stories. He directed and appeared in more than 40 movies that examined Palestinians’ experiences while they were living under Israeli occupation.

His solo theatrical production of The Pessoptimist, based on Emile Habibi’s novel about Palestinian identity, was performed more than 1,500 times around the world, cementing his place as a cultural icon.