Mohammad Bakri, The Electronic Intifada, 31 July 2008
(Mohammad Bakri (http://www.mohammadbakri.com/) is an internationally-acclaimed actor, theater maker and director. He has won four best actor awards for leading roles in feature films at international festivals. He is a Palestinian citizen of Israel.)
"I did not do it because I was a hero, but only because I was compelled. This is how I made my three documentaries. I say compelled because I am an actor, not a director. Nevertheless I loved my three films as a father loves his children.
I was compelled because in these films I was merely a person defending his forbidden narrative (his unofficial narrative) because for 60 years Israel has been telling its narratives that deny and contradict my own. My first film, in 1998, was about 50 years since the Nakba. The second in 2002 titled Jenin, Jenin, was about the people of Jenin refugee camp in which they told what happened to them during the Israeli invasion in April 2002. The latest, titled Since you left, is about what happened to me and to us Palestinians since the passing of my friend and teacher, the late Palestinian author and intellectual Emile Habiby. In it I visit his grave in his beloved city of Haifa and speak to him friend to friend about all that happened since he died.
When Jenin, Jenin was released in 2002 it was banned by the Israeli film censorship board. Two years later I managed to get a license overturning the ban in the Israeli high court.....
Meanwhile, my film remains banned and under attack to this day despite my winning in court three times -- twice against Israeli censorship and the third time against five sacred cows."
(Mohammad Bakri (http://www.mohammadbakri.com/) is an internationally-acclaimed actor, theater maker and director. He has won four best actor awards for leading roles in feature films at international festivals. He is a Palestinian citizen of Israel.)
"I did not do it because I was a hero, but only because I was compelled. This is how I made my three documentaries. I say compelled because I am an actor, not a director. Nevertheless I loved my three films as a father loves his children.
I was compelled because in these films I was merely a person defending his forbidden narrative (his unofficial narrative) because for 60 years Israel has been telling its narratives that deny and contradict my own. My first film, in 1998, was about 50 years since the Nakba. The second in 2002 titled Jenin, Jenin, was about the people of Jenin refugee camp in which they told what happened to them during the Israeli invasion in April 2002. The latest, titled Since you left, is about what happened to me and to us Palestinians since the passing of my friend and teacher, the late Palestinian author and intellectual Emile Habiby. In it I visit his grave in his beloved city of Haifa and speak to him friend to friend about all that happened since he died.
When Jenin, Jenin was released in 2002 it was banned by the Israeli film censorship board. Two years later I managed to get a license overturning the ban in the Israeli high court.....
Meanwhile, my film remains banned and under attack to this day despite my winning in court three times -- twice against Israeli censorship and the third time against five sacred cows."
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