A Palestinian director, producer and film writer born in 1950. He moved to Belgium in 1970 where he studied television and theatre directing at the Institut National Supérieur des Arts du Spectacle (INSAS) and graduated in 1975. He has directed and produced several documentary and feature films and received several prestigious 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. His filmography includes: Fertile Memory (1980), Ma'loul Celebrates its Destruction (1985), 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), and Zindeeq (2009).