The life of Mohammad Bakri was a narrow and too often uncomfortable path, speaking with art where politics failed. A Palestinian actor and director working across both Arabic and Hebrew cinema, he refused labels.
Now his death at 72 closes a chapter on a career defined by courageousness, controversy and an unchanging conviction that storytelling could challenge power and preserve memory.
Mohammad Bakri: An Artist Between Worlds
A native of northern Israel and an Israeli citizen, Bakri moved with rare ease between Palestinian and Israeli cultural spaces. He studied at Tel Aviv University and graced the most important stages and screens in Israel throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
His work never strayed from questions of identity on stage or film, Bakri acted out what it meant to be a part of two worlds that often refused to see each other clearly.
Mohammad Bakri: Jenin & the Cost of Speaking Out
Bakri’s name became synonymous with Jenin, Jenin, his 2003 documentary about the Israeli military operation in the West Bank city during the second intifada. The film focused on civilian loss and devastation and it was quickly banned in Israel.
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Amost two decades of legal battles, public attacks and professional isolation. The courts ultimately upheld the ban, ruling the film defamatory. For Bakri, the price of telling that story was steep, but he never disowned it.
Mohammad Bakri: Challenging Stereotypes Through Performance
Before Jenin, Jenin, Bakri had already rewritten the rules on how Palestinians came across on Israeli celluloid. In films like Beyond the Walls, he played complex, dignified creations that cut against the common portrayals.
His one-man stage show The Pessoptimist captured the emotional contradictions of living with both Palestinian and Israeli identities, giving out humor and pain in equal measure.
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Mohammad Bakri: A Family Legacy on Screen
More recently, Bakri returned to filmmaking with his sons Adam and Saleh. Their joint project, All That’s Left of You, chronicled a Palestinian family’s odyssey across generations and was short-listed for an Academy Award.
The film felt like a quiet passing of the torch, Bakri anchoring a story that mirrored his own lifelong preoccupations.
Mohammad Bakri: A Voice That Refused to Bend
Bakri was criticized from all sides on the one side, Palestinians who felt that he was collaborating with Israeli institutions too readily on the other, Israelis who saw him as combative. But people who know his work describe a man who was governed by principle rather than applause.
He was consistent, even when it cost him jobs, goodwill and sleep. His legacy isn’t just a body of work but a reminder that art, when the world demands silence, can remain truthful.
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