Michel Khleifi

Michel Khleifi (Arabic: ميشيل خليفي‎, Hebrew: מישל ח'לייפי‎; born 1950 in Nazareth) is an Arab (born in Israel) film writer, director and producer, presently based in Belgium.

Khleifi emigrated from Israel to Belgium in 1970, where he studied television and theatre directing at the Institut National Supérieur des Arts du Spectacle (INSAS). After graduating from INSAS, he worked in Belgium television before turning to making his own films. He has directed and produced several documentary and feature films. He has received several awards, including the International Critics’ Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, the Golden Shell at San Sebastián International Film Festival and the André Cavens Award in 1987 for his film Wedding in Galilee. Khleifi currently teaches at INSAS.^[1][2][3]

Filmography

• Fertile Memory (1980)
• Ma'loul Celebrates its Destruction (1985)
• Wedding in Galilee (also known as Arabic عرس الجليل trasliteration Urs al-Jalil (1987)
• Canticle of the Stones (1990)
• L'Ordre du Jour (1993)
• Tale of the Three Jewels (1995)
• Route 181: Fragments of a Journey in Palestine-Israel (2003), in collaboration with Eyal Sivan
• Zindeeq (2009)

Awards

• International Critics Prize, Cannes and the André Cavens Award for Wedding in Galilee (1987)
• Special Jury Prize at Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival for Canticle of the Stones (1991)
• Mayor's Prize, at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival for Route 181: Fragments of a Journey in Palestine-Israel (with Eyal Sivan) (2005)
• Muhr award for "Best Arab Feature Film" at the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) (2009)

References

1. Qantara.com Interview Michel Khleifi Film as a Political Work of Art
2. ahram.org Michel Khleifi: Looking for jewels Profile by Youssef Rakha
3. New York Times Michel Kheifi profile

External links

• Michel Khleifi at IMDb

Further reading

• Tim Kennedy, "Michel Kleifi: Filmmaker of Memory" in: Josef Gugler (ed.), Ten Arab Filmmakers: Political Dissent and Social Critique, Indiana University Press, 2015, ISBN 978-0-253-01644-7, pp. 52-74
• Gertz, Nurith; Khleifi, George (2008): Palestinian Cinema: Landscape, Trauma, and Memory, Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-22007-6. With:
  • Chapter 3: About place and time: The Cinema of Michel Kheifi, pp. 74-100
• Dabashi, Hamid, and Said, Edward (preface) (2006): Dreams Of A Nation: On Palestinian Cinema, Verso Books, London, United Kingdom, ISBN 1-84467-088-0. With:
  • Chapter 3: Michel Khleifi: From Reality to Fiction - From Poverty to Expression (pp. 45 -57)
  • Chapter 4: Bashir Abu-Manneh: Towards Liberation: Michel Khleifi's Ma'loul and Canticle (pp. 58-69)