Ziad Doueiri

Lebanese film director

Ziad Doueiri

Born| 1963 (age 60-61)

Lebanon

Occupations|

* Film director
* screenwriter

Years active| 1990–present

Ziad Doueiri (Arabic: زياد دويري ; born October 7, 1963)[1][2] is a Lebanese film director. He is known for his award-winning films West Beirut (1998) and The Insult (2017), a film that was nominated at the 90th Academy Awards, representing Lebanon in the Best International Feature Film category.

## Personal life and career

[edit]

Ziad Doueiri was born in Beirut in 1963 and grew up there during the civil war, where he shot his personal films with an 8 mm camera. At the age of 20, he left Lebanon during the civil war to go study in the United States, and graduated in 1986 from San Diego State University[3] with a degree in cinema, then worked with Quentin Tarantino as camera assistant[4] then cinematographer for movies such as Jackie Brown, From Dusk Till Dawn, Pulp Fiction, and Reservoir Dogs.[5]

In 1998 Ziad Doueiri wrote and directed his first feature film West Beirut, which received international fame, which starrs his brother Rami Doueiri. The film was followed by Lila Says, which was shown at the Sundance Film Festival.

Doueiri worked between Los Angeles and Beirut until 2011 after which he returned to work from Beirut.

Doueiri directed his film The Attack in 2013, which caused controversy and was banned from showing in Lebanon and most Arab countries (except for Morocco and Dubai) because of the scenes that he filmed in Tel Aviv. Doueiri expressed opposition to boycotts of Israel, and in 2013 defended his decision to shoot a film in Israel featuring Israeli actors.[6][7] The film is based on the story of Yasmina Khadra, with the same title. Its production costed 1.5 million dollars, with French and Egyptian funding and the Doha Film Institute. In September 2017, he was questioned in Beirut after returning from the Venice Film Festival.[8][9]

His next film, "Foreign Affairs," in which he was assigned the title role of French actor Gérard Depardieu, is about a retired French diplomat who is secretly sent by the American government to negotiate an agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. His new movies are "Case No. 23" or The Insult.

Douiri resides in Paris.[10]

## Filmography

[edit]

Film name  | Year  | Genre  | Role  | Remarks

|
|
|
|

West Beirut | 1998  | Drama  | Director, writer  | Won the Prix François Chalais at the Directors' fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival in 1998.
Lila Says | 2004  | Drama  | Director, writer  |
Sleeper Cell | 2005  | Terror series  | Director  | Episode "Immigrant"
The Attack | 2012  | Drama, political thriller  | Director, writer  | An Arab surgeon in Tel Aviv discovers something about his wife after a suicide bombing; based on a novel by Yasmina Khadra[5]
Affaire Étrangère
(English title
Foreign Affairs) | 2013  | Drama, political thriller  | Director, writer  | French thriller that centers on a retired French diplomat (Gérard Depardieu), secretly sent by the Americans to negotiate an Israeli-Palestinian agreement[11]
Baron Noir
(English title
Republican Gangsters) | 2016  | Political drama  | Director  | French TV Series (8 episodes)
Nominated - ACS Award for Best Director
The Insult | 2017  | Drama  | Director, writer  | Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

## References

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1. ^ زياد دويري وفيلمه المثير للجدل «الهجوم»: قدمت وجهة نظر الاسرائيلي دعما لشرعية الموقف الفلسطيني
2. ^ Interview avec Ziad Doueiri (in French)
3. ^ Saunders, Mark; Chen, Michael (March 2, 2018). "San Diego State graduate's Oscars nomination almost derailed by controversy". ABC10 News. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
4. ^ "Ziad Doueiri's latest controversial film, 'The Insult,' is on Oscar's shortlist". Los Angeles Times. 2018-01-11. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
5. ^ a b "Ziad Doueiri". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
6. ^ Lebanese Film Director Ziad Doueiri Defends Visit to Israel: Boycott Harms us, Not Israel, MEMRITV, Clip No. 3862, May 24, 2013.
7. ^ Deadline Hollywood: ‘The Insult’s Ziad Doueiri Freed By Lebanon Court After Post-Venice Detention
8. ^ Tartaglione, Nancy (11 September 2017). "'The Insult' Director Ziad Doueiri Detained In Lebanon After Venice Win". Deadline. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
9. ^ "Lebanese Director Ziad Doueiri Detained in Beirut, Cleared of Charges by Military Tribunal". Variety. 11 September 2017. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
10. ^ "This Lebanese filmmaker is getting global acclaim, but back home he got arrested". The World from PRX. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
11. ^ "Tessalit involved in 'Affaire'". Variety. May 19, 2012. Retrieved 21 June 2012.

## External links

[edit]

* Interview with Ziad Doueiri in Salon 1999-09-09. Retrieved 2010-08-25
* Ziad Doueiri at IMDb
* West Beirut at IMDb
* Lila Says at IMDb
* The Insult at IMDb

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF
* WorldCat

National|

* Norway
* France
* BnF data
* Germany
* Israel
* United States
* Netherlands

Other|

* IdRef