Palestinian actor and director Mohammad Bakri died on Wednesday at the age of 72. He suffered a health crisis that affected his heart and lungs. His death ends a decades-long artistic career that shaped Palestinian, Arab, and international cinema.
Bakri built his work around the Palestinian human experience. He focused on daily life under Israeli occupation. He did this through acting, directing, writing, and producing. His journey moved from theater stages to global film screens. He became one of the most influential cultural voices in Palestine.
Who is Mohammad Bakri?
Mohammad Bakri was born in 1953 in the village of al-Bi’na in the Galilee. He grew up as a Palestinian inside the occupied land on which Israel was created, where identity was a daily struggle. That reality shaped his artistic choices and political stance from the beginning.
He studied acting and theater at Tel Aviv University in 1973. He also studied Arabic literature. His early theater work showed a strong presence and clear purpose. One of his first major roles was in Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge.
His Works
Bakri never treated acting as technique alone. He treated it as a position. The stage and the camera became tools of confrontation. He confronted power, narrative, and silence through art.
Over more than four decades, Bakri took part in more than 40 works. He acted, directed, wrote, and produced. He worked in Palestine and abroad. His career included projects in the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Bulgaria.
On the international screen, Bakri appeared in major films. These included Private (Italy, 2004), Giraffada (Germany), The Body (Spain), and The Savior (Bulgaria). Private won the Lion of the Future Award at the Venice Film Festival. The film portrayed a Palestinian family trapped in their home under Israeli occupation. It became one of the most important films on Palestine in the early 2000s.
'Jenin, Jenin'
Bakri reached a turning point in 2002. He directed the documentary Jenin, Jenin. The film documented Israel’s assault on Jenin refugee camp during 'Operation Defensive Shield'. It relied on testimonies from residents. It placed the camera with the victims, not the army.
The film triggered a long legal and political campaign against him. Israeli courts banned the film. They ordered the confiscation of all copies. They also fined Bakri 175,000 shekels for defamation, plus 50,000 shekels in legal costs. The case followed him for years.
Despite the pressure, Bakri refused to retreat. He continued to speak publicly about Palestine. He rejected the Israeli narrative. He rejected the idea that his imposed citizenship defined his identity. He stated clearly that living under Israeli rule did not make him Israeli.
Bakri belonged in his youth to Hadash, the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality. He supported justice, equality, and Palestinian rights. These positions shaped his artistic choices. His roles often portrayed detainees, refugees, fathers under siege, and displaced people.
His theater work left a deep mark. His monodrama The Pessoptimist, adapted from Emile Habibi’s novel, became a landmark. He performed multiple characters alone on stage. The play captured the contradictions of Palestinian life between hope and despair. It inspired generations of young theater artists.
In cinema, Bakri played symbolic and intimate roles. In Haifa, he portrayed a man wandering a refugee camp with the name of a lost city. In Behind Bars, he embodied the Palestinian detainee. In Wajib, he starred alongside his son Saleh Bakri in a story about family, exile, and generational tension.
Bakri also directed other documentaries. These included 1948, which marked fifty years since the Nakba, and Since You Left, which won documentary awards. His work combined simplicity with honesty. He avoided spectacle. He trusted image and testimony.
In 2025, Bakri made his final film appearance in All That’s Left of You, a Palestinian-Bulgarian production. The film follows a family shaped by protest and memory in the West Bank. His performance relied on silence and restraint. It reflected a lifetime of experience.
The Ministry of Culture named Mohammad Bakri Cultural Personality of the Year in 2020. The ministry cited his global impact and his constant engagement with Palestinian and human causes.
Bakri was also a cultural activist. He managed Al-Saraya Theater in occupied Jaffa for a period. He later stepped down to focus on art. He often spoke at festivals and international forums. He raised the Palestinian flag in global cultural spaces.
He was a father of six. Some of his children entered acting, including Saleh Bakri and Ziad Bakri. Together, they formed a multigenerational artistic presence rooted in Palestine.
Mohammad Bakri believed art was an act of testimony. He believed truth mattered more than balance. He believed cinema should stand with the oppressed.
With his death, Palestinian culture loses a central figure. But his films remain. His voice remains. His work stands as a living archive of resistance against Israel, and a lasting testament to the power of honest art.
