Saleem Dabbour

Saleem Dabbour (Arabic: سليم دبور‎‎) (born 18 September 1970), is a Palestinian novelist, scenarist, director, producer, and film critic. Dabbour became popular for his "straight-forward and daring work" as a writer in Shu fi Ma fi (2006), Kaffa (2007) and Shubak al-Ankabout (2009).

Born in Jalazone, Palestine in 1970, Dabbour acquired Dutch citizenship in 1998 after a royal decision by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and since then, detains two citizenships (Dutch and Palestinian). He holds a BA degree in English Literature from Bir Zeit University and a postgraduate diploma in Cultural Studies from the Netherlands.

Poetry and writing

Saleem Dabbour published his first poem in Al-Quds (newspaper)at the age of 12. In his teenage years, hundreds of poems, short stories, and articles of his hand were published in Palestinian magazines and newspapers. He also wrote song lyrics and sang at several festivals. At university, he was contributor and editor of both the Arabic and English student magazines. At the age of 22, Dabbour wrote, directed, and produced his first theater play, Khaliluha, addressing the social custom of early marriage. Two other theater plays followed shortly; Fi Beetina Jinn and Malikaat Rahmeh, and were performed in the main theater houses. At the age of 23, Saleem Dabbour completed his first novel, Saber, which was published 20 years later by Dar al-Jundi, in October 2013.

Achievements

Saleem Dabbour has won several literary prizes, including the First Prize for Short Prose 2003, El-Hidzjra Foundation, Netherlands, for Eyewitness – a story on the Jenin massacre of 2002. In 2003, Dabbour participated in Stateless Nation, a project from the Venice Biennale that collected video interviews with prominent Palestinians in Palestine and the Diaspora for ongoing exhibition. For his work and efforts in the human rights field, Dabbour was honored as a Distinguished Visitor by the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights in 2006. Dabbour was voted among the top 5 Cultural Personalities in Palestine in Ma'an's 2009 Annual Leading Figures and Organizations poll. in which around 450,000 persons took part. In 2013, Dabbour became CEO of IMPACT, a nonprofit organization specialized in creating visual productions for social change.

Featured films

Nuktet Tahawul is a truth-based drama on a Palestinian boy growing up under Israeli occupation in the 1980s, stars Sami Mitwasi as the leading character Osama, and co-stars 15-year-old Majd Dabbour as the young Osama. The 100-minute film is set in a small village and tells a personal journey of adolescence and young adulthood, struggles, hardships and existence. The film was a "turning point" in recent Palestinian cinema history, for being the first-ever 100% Palestinian-funded production with an all Palestinian crew and cast. As a result, unlike most Palestinian productions, it did not need heed any censorship and could take head on the brutality of the Israeli conflict and the controversial issue of collaboration with the Israeli military. It gained a lot of media attention for being the first Palestinian film that was released in Egyptian cinemas, after initially being banned by former Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak. The film that was shot in its entirety in Palestine, faced many difficulties due to Israeli conflicts, especially when shooting in the cities of Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahour in the West Bank.

Kaffa! is a short drama that deals with the political turmoil in Palestine which began in January 2006 during the first democratic parliamentary elections that Hamas participated in, its unexpected landslide victory, the following international aid boycott and the developing internal conflicts that marked 2007 and overshadowed Israeli occupation policies. The 48-minute film sought to provide truthful and objective insight into these issues by capturing developments in a family with two sons of rivaling parties. Focusing on the mother and the sons who belonged to rival factions Hamas and Fateh, the film followed the family through the excitement of the pre-election and immediate post-election period, to the growing tensions and increasing inter-factional violence which disrupts family life and the mother's health.

Kaffa! was awarded the Gold Prize at the 2009 Tunis Arab Media Festival, and won the Silver Prize at the 14th Arab Media Festival in Cairo, 2008, in the short film category.

Theater

Aniimated films

Al-Hayaa Ahla (Life is Better) was the first-ever Palestinian-made animated film for children. Written by Dabbour, this 22-minute-long film that evolves around children's rights using original characters, was funded by UNICEF and distributed to children, schools and child rights organizations throughout Palestinian territories.

Documantary films

Television

Shu Fi Ma Fi was the second Palestinian-produced TV 'soap' series in history. Produced by the independent Ma'an Development Center, the series, which was labelled as a family comedy, consisted of twenty 40-minute episodes set in a University and dealt with a range of social and political issues including domestic violence, corruption, parliamentary elections, inter-religious marriage, online love and drugs. The series, which was deemed a great achievement for Palestinian media productions, was first broadcast in 2006, during the month of Ramadan on Palestinian Satellite Channel as well as 12 other independent Palestinian TV channels.