Following a screening of his new short film Upshot, film programmer and producer Elhum Shakerifar will host an in-depth conversation with cinematic legend Mohammad Bakri.
From his distinct, enigmatic role in Hanna K. by Costa Gavras in 1983, to his most recent feature, Cherian Dabis’ All That’s Left of You (2025) alongside his sons Adam and Saleh, Mohammad Bakri’s expressive face has defined over fifty years of screen culture from and about Palestine.
In his celebrated career, he has embodied very singular roles in Palestinian cinema but also in international productions. A director himself, he has staged several theatre plays and created impactful documentaries about his home country, preserving the stories of Palestinian elders displaced by the Nakba in 1948 (1998), and of survivors of the 2002 Jenin massacres in Jenin Jenin (2002), among others.
SAFAR Film Festival is honoured to host Mohammad Bakri for a screentalk delving into his rich and diverse career. The award-winning short film Upshot (2024) by Maha Haj, one of the latest films in which Bakri has starred, will precede this conversation.
Upshot (ما بعد) follows Suleiman and Lubna, a couple who, after enduring unimaginable loss, withdraw to a remote farm. There, they find solace in tending to their crops and engaging in spirited debates about the paths their five children have taken. But when a stranger arrives with a devastating revelation, their fragile peace is shattered, forcing them to confront a painful truth.