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Hiam Abbass (Arabic: هيام عباس; Hebrew: היאם עבאס born November 30, 1960), also Hiyam Abbas, is an Israeli Arabactress and film director of Palestinian descent.[1]
Personal life[edit]
Hiam Abbass was born into a Muslim family in Nazareth, Israel. She was raised in a traditional Muslim village near the Lebanese border.[2]
During the filming of the Steven Spielberg film Munich, Abbass lived in a hotel with the Arab and Israeli actors for three months. During that time, they had many discussions that "helped both sides grow closer." In an interview in 2006, Abbass said, "I still remember how difficult it was for the Arab actors to manhandle the Israeli actors in the first scene where the Israeli national team is taken hostage."[1]
Film career[edit]
Abbass is known for her roles in Satin Rouge (2002), Haifa (1996), Paradise Now (2005), The Syrian Bride (2004),Free Zone (2005), Dawn of the World (2008), The Visitor (2008), Lemon Tree (2008), Everyday is a Holiday (2009) and Amreeka (2009). In Spielberg's film, depicting the response to the Munich Massacre, she also served as a dialect and acting consultant.[1]
She directed two short films, Le Pain (2001), and La Danse éternelle (2004). She portrays humanitarian Hind al-Husseini in Julian Schnabel's film Miral (2010), based on the life of Husseini and her orphanage.
In 2002, she appeared in Satin Rouge by Raja Amari, a film about the self-discovery of a middle aged Tunisian widow.[citation needed] She also a similar role in The Syrian Bride, about a Druze woman eager to break down barriers.
Abbass appeared in the French films "Le sac de farine" and "Le temps de la balle".[3]
In 2008, she played the mother of an illegal Syrian immigrant in Thomas McCarthy's movie The Visitor,[4] and the mother of an Iraqi soldier in Abbas Fahdel's filmDawn of the World.
Also in 2008, she played the principal role in Israeli director Eran Riklis's film Lemon Tree (Etz Limon in Hebrew). For this role, she won Best Performance by an Actress at the 2008 Asia Pacific Screen Awards.[3] In Jim Jarmusch's 2009 film The Limits of Control, in the role of Driver, she recites in Classical Arabic one of the film's leitmotif-phrases, "He who thinks he is bigger than the rest must go to the cemetery. There he will see what life really is."
Abbass also appears in A Bottle in the Gaza Sea (2011), a French-Québéecois-Israeli film produced by Thierry Binisti. It is based upon the young adult novel Une bouteille dans la mer de Gaza by Valérie Zenatti. She plays the role of Naïm's mother.
In 2012, she was named as a member of the Jury for the Main Competition at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.[5]
She made her directorial feature film debut with The Inheritance in 2012
Hiam Abbass (arabe : هيام عباس ; hébreu : היאם עבאס) est uneactrice, directrice d'acteurs, réalisatrice, productrice, écrivaine,scénariste et photographe arabe israélienne née le 30 novembre 1960 dans le village galiléen de Deir Hanna (en), en Israël.
Elle est issue d'une famille palestinienne originaire de Nazareth. Ses parents étaient enseignants. Elle parle couramment l'arabe, l'hébreu, le français et l'anglais. Elle a étudié la photographie à Haïfa puis a rejoint la troupe de théâtre palestinienne de El-Hakawati. Elle est surtout connue pour ses rôles dans les films Satin rouge, Paradise Now, La Fiancée syrienne, Free Zone, Les Citronniers, The Visitor et Une Bouteille à la mer.
En 2007, elle est membre du jury des longs métrages lors du 57Festival de Berlin, présidé par Paul Schrader.
En 2009 elle est membre du jury lors du 35 Festival du cinéma américain de Deauville, présidé par Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
En 2012, elle fait partie du jury des longs métrages pour le Festival de Cannes 2012, présidé par Nanni Moretti
Elle vit depuis de nombreuses années à Paris avec son mari le comédien Zinedine Soualem et leurs deux filles, Lina et Mouna.
