| Kamel El Basha | |
| Birth Place: | Malha, Palestine, |
| Occupation: | Actor, theatre director |
| Years Active: | 1987–present |
| Awards: | Volpi Cup for Best Actor 2017 |
Kamel El Basha or Kamel el-Basha (Arabic: كامل الباشا) (born) is a Palestinian actor, theatre director, teacher, and translator.
Kamel El Basha was born around 1962 in Malha,[1] then a thriving village in Palestine known as al-Maliha, now a suburb in south-western Jerusalem, Israel.[2] [3] He recalls being five years old and running from his home with his family during the 1967 war, when Israel battled Syrian, Jordanian, and Egyptian armies, afterwards claiming a large amount of territory.
As a child, when there was no television, he would perform for other children in the neighbourhood in his home.
El Basha studied theatre from 1979 to 1983. As a young man, he was imprisoned by the Israeli authorities for two years owing to his activism on behalf of the Palestinian people.[1]
He studied theatre in Baghdad, Iraq, at some point.
El Basha has acted in, directed, and also written and translated plays for the stage.[1]
He began his career as a stage actor after his release from prison, making a notable debut in the Arabic version of Brecht's The Exception and the Rule.[1]
He has appeared in several Palestinian TV series and films, including Palestinian director Muayad Alayan's 2015 film Love, Theft and Other Entanglements,[1] as well as his 2018 award-winning film about an affair between a married Israeli woman and a married Palestinian man, The Reports on Sarah and Saleem.[4] [5]
El Basha came to international attention for his role as Palestinian refugee Yasser Abdallah Salameh in the 2017 film The Insult by the Lebanese film director Ziad Doueiri.[6] [1] The film won several awards,[7] [8] and El Kamal won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for his performance.
He starred in the 2023 short films An Orange in Jaffa and Palestinian Islands.[9] Also in 2023, he played safecracker Youssef Mizouni in the eight-part British heist television series Culprits.[10]
He plays a major role in the 2024 Australian TV series House of Gods as Sheikh Mohammad, airing on ABC TV aind ABC iview. The series has been selected to be screened in the French competition Series Mania, while El Basha was awarded with the Best Actor prize.[11] [12] This is an international competition dedicated to television series held in Lille since 2018.[13] Sheikh Mohammad is an Iraqi imam, and the series focuses on relationships with his family, and among the Iraqi expatriate community living in Australia.[12] Most of the other actors are Australian, including co-creator and co-star Osamah Sami, and Iraqi-born Maia Abbas. The series was filmed in western Sydney.[14]
El Basha was artistic director of the Palestinian National Theater in Jerusalem from 2007 to 2011, and the artistic director of Quds Art from 2012.[15]
2017: Volpi Cup for Best Actor in the 74th Venice International Film Festival,for The Insult[16] [1]
El Basha is Muslim, while his wife is a Palestinian Christian woman. they live in East Jerusalem.[12]
He sees his acting talent as a "gift from God".[12]