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Sameh Zoabi

Sameh Zoabi

Directing

Biography

Sameh Zoabi is a Palestinian Israeli film writer and director best known for his 2019 film Tel Aviv on Fire. Zoabi grew up in Iksal, a village near Nazareth, Israel. His father is a farmer. He studied at Tel Aviv University, graduating with a dual degree in film studies and literature, and then attended Columbia University on a Fulbright scholarship, receiving his MFA in 2005. Zoabi lives in Brooklyn and teaches at New York University.

Known For

Accused
6.9

In this crime anthology series, viewers discover how an ordinary person got caught up in an extraordinary situation, ultimately revealing how one wrong turn leads to another, until it’s too late to turn back. Told from the defendant’s point of view, each episode opens in a courtroom on the accused without knowing their crime or how they ended up on trial.

Accused

2023
Tel Aviv on Fire
6.8

Salam, an inexperienced young Palestinian man, becomes a writer on a popular soap opera after a chance meeting with an Israeli soldier. His creative career is on the rise - until the soldier and the show's financial backers disagree about how the show should end, and Salam is caught in the middle.

Tel Aviv on Fire

2018
The Idol
7.0

Mohammed Assaf, an aspiring musician living in Gaza, sets a seemingly impossible goal: to compete on the program "Arab Idol."

The Idol

2016
Under the Same Sun
1.0

The film is set in the near future, and it looks back on how peace was made in 2013 between Israel and Palestine. It is the story of two businessmen - one Palestinian and one Israeli - who struggle to set up a solar energy company. Both come from societies where there is strong opposition to cooperating with the other, and the film tells how they overcome hostility from within their own families and from the people around them. In the end, they mount a Facebook campaign that brings popular support both to their joint venture and to the peace process. The film was produced by Amir Harel, an Academy Award-nominated Israeli producer, and directed by Sameh Zoabi, a leading Palestinian film-maker.

Under the Same Sun

2013
Real Talk
N/A

A woman goes on a daytime show to confront a famous music producer of sexual harassment, only to find him armed with the “perfect apology.”

Real Talk

2020
Man Without a Cell Phone
5.0

Jawdat, a young Israeli Arab, just wants to have fun with his friends, spend hours chatting on his cell phone, and above all, find love. But he keeps going on failed dates with Muslim, Christian, and even Jewish girls, while desperately trying to pass his Hebrew test to get into university and leave his village. Things get complicated when Salem, his father, an olive farmer, wants him to join him in his fight against the antenna installed in a neighboring field by the Israeli telephone company, which he suspects is irradiating the villagers.

Man Without a Cell Phone

2012
No image
8.0

A simple car trip is beset by politically charged tension and a militarized reality.

Be Quiet

2005
End Zoom
N/A

Another day, another university writing workshop on Zoom. When a frustrated student gets some unwanted feedback from his classmates, he decides to give a little feedback of his own.

End Zoom

2020