Jenin Jenin

My crime was to tell the truth



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. Mohammad Bakri comments on his persecution in the Israeli court system. 

Italian solidarity with Palestinian filmmaker on trial in Israel



At the end of last November, filmmaker Mohammad Bakri furiously left a press conference organized at the Library of the Auditorium of Rome. He was present because of the performance of the opera Al Kamandjati based on the story of Palestinian musician Ramzi Aburedwan and his music school in Ramallah. The reason for his anger was that not a single journalist asked him any questions when he announced that he would soon be tried in Israel because of his 2002 film Jenin Jenin

Israel's Supreme Court lifts ban on "Jenin, Jenin"



Today, Israel�s Supreme Court lifted a ban on Mohammed Bakri�s documentary �Jenin, Jenin�, ruling that Israel�s film board, also known as the film censorship board, had overstepped the red lines drawn by the freedom of expression. �Jenin, Jenin� was screened three times in Israel before it was banned. According to the court the board�s decision infringes on freedom of expression �above and beyond what is necessary.� Now that the ban on the film is lifted, the first screening has been set on December 8 at the Tel Aviv Cinemateque. 

Israeli film board bans "Jenin, Jenin"

“I was searching for the humane side of people’s dreams, people’s hunger and people’s disappointments. I was not looking for numbers, who is right, or why this happened,” Bakri said. “For me, it’s a prayer to stop this hell we are living in.” Joshua Mitnick of the New Jersey Star Ledger reports on a censorship move that calls Israeli democracy into question. 

"Jenin Jenin" features at International Documentary Filmfestival

“Jenin Jenin”, a 54-minute documentary made by Palestinian filmmaker/actor Muhammad Bakri, features at the International Documentary Filmfestival (IDFA) in Amsterdam. This film is Bakri’s most cutting statement yet. Bakri says that the film is about “human suffering as such - about a wounded soul, a demolished home, a felled tree, a picked flower, a broken heart.”