
Ziad Bakri
Acting
Biography
Ziad Bakri is a Palestinian actor and director. He starred in SCREWDRIVER, which enjoyed a busy festival career and was nominated for Best Film at the Venice International Film Festival, Malmo Arab Film Festival, and El Gouna Film Festival. Ziad's SCREWDRIVER won Best Film at the International Festival of Mediterranean Cinema in Montpellier (Cinemed) and the Bosphorus Film Festival. It also won Best First Work and Best Actor for Ziad's role at the Mediterranean Film Festival of Tetouan. For his role in the French-Greek film THE BLIND SUN, which screened at several prestigious international film festivals, Ziad won the Best Actor award at Fantasporto. In 2022, he starred in the Netflix film THE WEEKEND AWAY, and in 2023, he starred in the Italian film PROFETI, directed by Alessio Gremonini, who won Best Screenplay at the Golden Globes, Italy, and starring Donato Demita and Marco Horanich. Ziad recently finished shooting THE STRANGERS' CASE, directed by Brandt Anderson whose film REFUGEE won the Jury prize at the French Rivera Film Festival and starring Omar Sy (THE INTOUCHABLES), Yasmine Al Massri (CARAMEL) and Angeliki Papoulia ( THE LOBSTER). His upcoming projects also include THE SAND CASTLE, directed by Emmy-nominated director Matty Brown and starring Nadine Labaki and child Zain Al Rafeea, who collaborate for the second time after their film CAPERNAUM, which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. Moreover, Ziad is not only an actor but also a filmmaker. He wrote and directed the short film THE SALT FISHERMAN, which played at the Dubai International Film Festival (2011) and earned him a Best Director nomination.
Known For

Within the DGSE (General Directorate for External Security), a department called the Office Of Legends (BDL) forms and remote pilot the most important agents of the French intelligence services: Clandestine. Immersion in hostile country, their mission is to identify individuals who may be recruited as sources of information. Operating "under caption", that is to say in a fabricated identity from scratch, they live for many years in a permanent duplicity. Our hero just returned from a clandestine mission six years in Damascus. But contrary to what is required by safety rules, he does not abandon his legend and the identity under which he lived in Syria, thus putting in danger the whole system.
The Bureau

When her best friend vanishes during a girls' trip to Croatia, Beth races to figure out what happened. But each clue yields another unsettling deception.
The Weekend Away

A Syrian doctor and her daughter flee Aleppo, setting off a chain of events that binds five strangers together. A smuggler, a soldier, a poet, and a coast guard captain collide in a crisis that tests their courage, their choices, and their humanity.
I Was a Stranger

The municipality of a small Breton village has decided to welcome a family of Ukrainian refugees. To their surprise, they receive Fayad family – coming from Syria. They thwart all the clichés that the French expected: they are friendly, refined, educated… So much so that, in this small, humming village, it is no longer clear which side the barbarians are on…
Meet the Barbarians

In a dystopian future, Ganapath, a relentless and skilled vigilante, embarks on a mission to dismantle a powerful criminal empire that has gripped the city in fear. Ganapath becomes a symbol of hope for the oppressed in which leads dark.
Ganapath

A drama centered on an orphaned Palestinian girl growing up in the wake of the first Arab-Israeli war who finds herself drawn into the conflict.
Miral

Stranded on a deserted island, a family of four scavenges for survival as their past unravels, sending them into a downward spiral of painful events.
The Sand Castle

After fifteen years of imprisonment, Ziad struggles to adjust to modern Palestinian life as the hero everyone hails him to be. Unable to distinguish reality from hallucination he unravels and forces himself to go back to where it all began.
Screwdriver

Greece. A seaside resort struck by a heavy heat wave. Water is scarce and violence is ready to explode. Ashraf, a solitary immigrant, is looking after a villa while its owners are away. On a dusty road crushed by the sun, he is stopped by a police officer for an identity check...
Blind Sun

After Tom Hurndall is shot in the head in Gaza, his parents Anthony and Jocelyn arrive in Israel wanting to know how it could have happened. They expect sympathy and cooperation from the Israeli authorities, but are instead met with an official explanation that fails to tally with any eye-witness accounts, and a wall of silence. When an Israeli army report attempts to whitewash the incident, the Hurndalls decide the only way to establish the truth is to launch their own investigation into the shooting, a process which brings them face to face with both the Open-Fire regulations of the Israeli army in Gaza, and the soldier who pulled the trigger.
The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall

PROPHETS is the story of an encounter and a confrontation between Sara, an independent Italian journalist who was kidnapped in Syria by ISIS while she was working on a war news report in 2015, and Nur, the young foreign fighter, wife to a soldier of the Caliphate who holds Sara in custody in a building located in the middle of a training camp. Nur’s strong will to proselytize, together with the strict orders of the leader of the camp, will unfold into an attempt to convert Sara and make her join Islamic extremism.
Profeti

Zion, 14, and his brother Meir, 17, are facing a crisis in their relationship after a terrible accident. They keep the secret to themselves and it haunts them until, finally, Zion re-examines his loyalty towards his older brother and decides that he is ready to take responsibility for his own life.
Zion and His Brother

A Syrian exile living in Australia returns when his brother is taken into custody by the Assad regime in 2011.
The Translator

Amira, a 17 year old Palestinian, was conceived with the smuggled sperm of her imprisoned father, Nawar. Although their relationship since birth has been restricted to prison visits, he remains her hero. His absence in her life is overcompensated with love and affection from those surrounding her. But when a failed attempt to conceive another child reveals Nawar's infertility, Amira's world turns upside down.
Amira

Ten directors, Israeli and Palestinian embarked on a journey to create short films, fiction or documentary, inspired by water.
Water

In Nazareth, an old couple lives wearily to the rhythm of the daily routine. On the other side of the border, in Ramallah, their son Tarek wishes to remain an eternal bachelor, their daughter is about to give birth while her husband lands a movie role and the grandmother loses her head... Between check-points and dreams, frivolity and politics, some want to leave, others want to stay but all have personal affairs to resolve.
Personal Affairs

During a normal day at a shopping square in Amman, Sami, a 15 year old spoiled naive kid, and the street-smart hustler Mahmoud, a 15 year old corn seller, are ready to execute their plan to steal an unexpected gift that will impress Sami’s girlfriend, unbeknownst to them what unexpected twists and turns are about to come their way.
Arnoos

Self Made tells the story of two women - one Israeli, the other Palestinian- who are trapped within their respective worlds. After a mix-up at a checkpoint, they find themselves living the life of the other on the opposite side of the border.
Self Made

Haunted by her mother’s death and recurring attacks by Israeli forces on her city, a young girl becomes obsessed with death. To distract her, her father makes a stop-motion film. However, his attempts fail and the girl finds nothing other than imagination to escape from reality.
Mar Mama

A fisherman lives alone. His days and nights are fraught with waiting. He rises with the sun and carries his anxieties and tools to the sea, where he fishes. He fishes until sunset without ever catching a fish. One day, he meets a passerby on the sea playing a mouth harmonica. The man feels compassion for him and tells him that he is fishing in a sea without fish, in a sea that is dead, but the fisherman does not even look at him.