Kamel El Basha

Acting

Kamel El Basha

Born 1962-03-14 · Jerusalem, Palestine

Kamel El Basha is a Palestinian actor of screen and stage, theater director, play-writer and producer. He began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s. He gained critical acclaim in 2017 when he won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor (male) during the 74th Venice International Film Festival for his role as Yasser Abdallah Salameh in The Insult by the Lebanese film director Ziad Doueiri. It was El Basha's first major role on screen, although he had appeared in a number of theatrical productions, actually also directing some of them. He is the former artistic director of the Palestinian National Theater in Jerusalem from 2007 to 2011 and the artistic director of Quds Art since 2012.

Acting credits

Palestine 36 poster
7.8

Year 1936. As villages across Palestine rise against British colonial rule, Yusuf drifts between his rural home and the restless energy of Jerusalem, longing for a future beyond the growing unrest. But history is relentless. With rising numbers of Jewish immigrants escaping antisemitism in Europe and some arriving with nefarious Zionist-colonial ambitions, and the Palestinian population uniting in the largest and longest uprising against Britain’s 30-year dominion, all sides spiral towards inevitable collision in a decisive moment for the British Empire and the future of the entire region.

Palestine 36

2025

Asad poster
7.7

A slave in 19th Century Egypt revolts against his masters for equal rights for slaves to live freely.

Asad

2026

The Insult poster
7.5

After an emotional exchange between a Lebanese Christian and a Palestinian refugee escalates, the men end up in a court case that gets national attention.

The Insult

2017

I Know You Can Hear Me poster
10.0

After Saleem is released from prison after twenty years, he stays alone at home, haunted by nightmares, while Cosette tries to reconnect with him and understand why he’s isolating himself, hoping to help him face his past and rebuild their relationship. Will she succeed?

I Know You Can Hear Me

2025

Our Males and Females poster
5.5

A father and mother are faced with the painful task of washing their deceased transgender daughter, but when no one agrees to wash her, how far is the father willing to go to make sure his "son" is washed?

Our Males and Females

2023

Conversation with the Sea poster
NR

In Jerusalem, Kamal, a 60-year-old Palestinian man, is ordered by an Israeli court to pay a large social security debt allegedly owed by his son Wael. But Wael drowned in the Red Sea decades ago. When no official record of his death can be found, Kamal follows the only remaining lead to uncover what happened to his son.

Conversation with the Sea

2026

Palestine Islands poster
6.0

Maha, 12, is part of the last generation of Palestinian refugees from the Balata camp. Following a faintness from her blind grandfather, she imagines a crazy project: to make him believe that the wall of separation has fallen and that a return to his native land is possible.

Palestine Islands

2023

Huda's Salon poster
6.1

Based on real events, Huda’s Salon is a heart-racing, entertaining feminist thriller, where two women fight for their freedom. Reem, a young mother who is married to a jealous man, goes to Huda’s salon in Bethlehem for a haircut and an attentive ear. However, this ordinary visit turns sour after Huda puts Reem in a shameful situation, blackmails her to work for the secret service of the occupiers and betrays her people.

Huda's Salon

2022

Love, Theft and Other Entanglements poster
4.0

Layabout, clandestine lover, small-time hood – Mousa has all kinds of skills. A refugee camp resident, this Palestinian does not give a damn about his father’s hard-won permit to work legally in the Israeli part of Jerusalem – he would rather earn a living stealing Israeli cars and selling them to Palestinian fences. Mousa is convinced that his future lies far away from all the violence and constraints that characterise life in the divided city; his heart, moreover, belongs to a married woman. Following the theft of a Passat one day he is given a brutal goingover by Palestinian militia-men. On closer inspection of the vehicle, he makes a discovery which suddenly makes apolitical Mousa of interest to all sides …

Love, Theft and Other Entanglements

2015

I'll Get Back to You poster
NR

For the first time in decades, an exile arrives in Palestine and enters his family home. His mission is to recollect and liquidate remnants of the past. His expedition across the present connects him with places, people, and Palestinian plains. The plot thickens when his encounters lead him to a confrontation with Abu Bassam, a steward of the land, who reminds him that Palestine always remembers its people and keeps their roots alive. The exile’s mission transforms from liquidation to reincarnation, leading to a new state of permanence.

I'll Get Back to You

2025

My Father's Scent poster
5.7

Over the course of one long night, a father and his son each discover many secrets about the other, and together they try to overcome all the differences of the past and move forward.

My Father's Scent

2026

The Land's Oath poster
NR

After her husband is murdered, a woman living under her brother-in-law’s tyranny transforms grief into resistance, quietly reclaiming her land in a modern echo of the myth of Isis and Osiris.

The Land's Oath

2026

Hamza - Chasing the Ghost Chasing Me poster
NR

After his recovery, middle-aged Hamza has continued a practice he began 20 years ago when he was freed from an Israeli prison: he goes into the woods every day to chase the lion that the locals don’t think exists. Hamza struggles to reach a peaceful place. Despite his wife’s pleadings and the villagers’ contempt, Hamza sits his baits and traps in the forest, hoping to defeat the mysterious threat. He finds refuge in his journey from social rejection and denial. In the woods, Hamza is free to act according to his beliefs, fighting his own battle to heal an open wound – the trauma of losing his childhood friend, and the horrific memories of torture and guilt.

Hamza - Chasing the Ghost Chasing Me

2022

The Reports on Sarah and Saleem poster
6.9

The affair of a married Palestinian man and a married Israeli woman in Jerusalem takes a dangerous political dimension when they are spotted in the wrong place at the wrong time, leaving them to deal with more than their broken marriages.

The Reports on Sarah and Saleem

2018

Thank You for Banking with Us poster
8.0

After finding out that their father left a huge sum of money behind after his death, Mariam and Noura come up with an elaborate scheme to abscond with the money before their brother — who is legally entitled to half the inheritance — finds out about their father’s death.

Thank You for Banking with Us

2025

An Orange from Jaffa poster
6.2

Mohammed, a young Palestinian, embarks on a tense journey to cross an Israeli checkpoint with a temporary Polish residence card. After being turned down by other drivers, Farouk, a well-meaning taxi driver, offers him a ride. However, they soon encounter severe trouble when Israeli soldiers discover Mohammed’s previous failed attempt to cross. The film powerfully captures the oppressive reality of life under occupation and the personal costs involved.

An Orange from Jaffa

2024

The Translator poster
5.7

A Syrian exile living in Australia returns when his brother is taken into custody by the Assad regime in 2011.

The Translator

2021

Curfew poster
6.8

On 2013, Faten is released from prison after serving a 20-year sentence for committing a horrific crime. She is forced to spend her night with Leila as a result of a curfew and she is subjected to another trial in search of answers to hidden questions about her

Curfew

2020

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Dreams of Sultan Al-Mansi

Behind the camera