saleh adam bakri

Source: Giorgio Zucchiatti/La Biennale di Venezia / Ross Belot (licensed under CC by 2.0)

Saleh Bakri, Adam Bakri

Saleh Bakri and Adam Bakri are to star in All That’s Left Of You, the upcoming drama from Palestinian-American filmmaker Cherien Dabis.

Salah is known for Cannes award-winner The Blue Caftan and recent Toronto title The Teacher, which plays in Competition at this year’s Red Sea International Film Festival, while brother Adam made his feature debut in Hany Abu-Assad’s Oscar-nominated Omar, going on to star in Asif Kapadia’s Ali And Nino and award-winning Toronto 2022 title A Gaza Weekend.

Dabis, known for directing Cannes award-winning drama Amreeka, will also take a role in the film, which spans three generations of a family in Palestine.

The feature received production support from the Red Sea Fund earlier this year and was set to shoot in Palestine. But plans ground to a halt on October 7, when Hamas launched their first attacks and saw retaliation by Israel in Gaza.

The filmmaker and her crew relocated to Cyprus, where production had previously been planned on parts of the film, and were set to return to Palestine. 

“We had to change the shooting plan because of the war in Gaza,” says Mohamed Hefzy of Egypt’s Film Clinic, which is a co-producer on the upcoming feature. “We wanted to shoot in Palestine. It isn’t possible right now but we are hoping to go back one day.”

The film is a co-production between Germany’s Pallas Film and Twenty Twenty Vision, Cyprus’ AMP Filmworks and Palestine’s Fresco Films. Hefzy describes the film as “an historic epic, which tells the story of Palestine and how we got to where we are today”.

Dabis has more recently directed episodes of US streaming series such as Ozark and was Emmy nominated for her work on Only Murders In The Building.