Success stories of Palestinian achievers from all over the world

Leila Sansour

Sector : Media, Directors

Personal Info

  • Country of residence: Macao
  • Gender: Female
  • Born in: 1966
  • Age: 56
  • Curriculum vitae :

Information

Laila Sansour (born February 16, 1966 in Moscow) is a Palestinian film producer, director, political activist, and founder of the Open Bethlehem campaign.

She was born in Moscow, Russia on February 16, 1966 to a Palestinian father and a Russian mother. Her father Anton was a mathematics teacher at Moscow State University and she moved with her family to Bethlehem in 1973. Her father was one of the founders of Bethlehem University.

Laila left Bethlehem when she was eighteen years old, with a desire to discover the wider world, after she felt at the time that the city was too small for her dreams and ambitions at the time. She completed her studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, Moscow State University, and the University of Warwick in England.

She worked with Al-Jazeera, where she presented many documentaries for the program “A Mawdat in the Diaspora.” She also worked with MBC from London immediately after her graduation, and she presented documentaries. She made a long documentary film with a British comedian named Jeremy Hardy, facing the Israeli army during the siege on Gaza in 2003. This film was widely distributed in British cinemas in 2005.

Laila returned to Bethlehem in 2004 when she felt that she could not remain helpless without doing anything to prevent the completion of the separation wall, which Israel began building in 2003. She considered that the separation wall is an Israeli expansion project, and it seizes many of Palestinian lands to prevent the formation of the state of Palestine in the future, in addition to destroying tourist attractions and destroying the region economically and historically.

Upon her return to Bethlehem, she became more involved with people and institutions and felt that she could be a bridge between Palestine and the world to deliver the messages of its people.

 Soon, she began leading a campaign against building the separation wall. The campaign also aimed to put the old city on the world map as a model for diversity in the Middle East. Laila spent four years establishing the "Open Bethlehem" campaign to promote the city's heritage and pressure to demolish the wall. This campaign they launched also aims In America and Europe, to reach Western audiences, decision-makers, and heads of churches, to familiarize them with the issue of Bethlehem and the wall, as you see that through this the Palestinian issue is better explained.

When Laila felt that the funding sources for this campaign had run out, she decided to make her film "The Road to Bethlehem".

The Road to Bethlehem is a 90-minute long documentary film based on 700 hours of footage. The work on this film led to the collection of a rare and extensive archive of the city of Bethlehem, which is now being worked on with University College London to turn it into an electronic museum that serves visitors as well as researchers in the history of the city.

The film tells in a cinematic journey inside the city, personal diaries and true stories by director Laila Sansour, in which she documented the construction of the wall of annexation and racial expansion, and its impact on people’s lives, and how she found herself involved in many activities and events with institutions, solidarity activists and the people of the country to stop this wall that stifled the city and impeded life in it. It had a great impact on social and geographical life

It also documents events that Laila witnessed, from demolishing homes, cutting down trees, and impeding life in its simplest details.

Through her film, Bethlehem is a city that is proud of its cultural and religious diversity, and it has invited people to visit it and apply for a symbolic passport in the name of the city through its campaign so that people can see with their own eyes the beauty and distinction of the city in addition to its suffering.

Laila described the city of Bethlehem at the beginning of the film as a legend, and added that the film's chapter began as an attempt to understand its relationship with the city and to introduce the world to the challenge facing the Palestinian, which became a reason for its continuation.

The film was filmed in critical and difficult conditions, especially as it faced great difficulty in not being able to film, as the occupation soldiers prevented this, and many scenes were filmed without anyone noticing, and this is clearly shown in the film, and increased its realism.

This film received great support from businessman Fadi Ghandour, director of Aramex, who then activated the support of his businessmen friends. film industry.

 It is noteworthy that the film participated in many festivals at the international level and at the level of the Arab world, and it was shown in Britain in cinemas, a number of churches, and also in special shows, especially in homes of Jewish families who had a desire to know more about the reality in Palestine, according to Laila, in addition. It was shown in Holland, Belgium, Norway, Australia and Bethlehem.

More recent versions of the film have been prepared and translated into French and Russian.

 

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