Le Monde

Palestine | 2026 | 6 min | Fiction Inside ”Le Monde”, a café-restaurant, people of different ages and backgrounds are immersed in their private moments as a birthday celebration unfolds. In the background, a television quietly broadcasts images of the war in Gaza, largely ignored by those present. Only a seventy-year-old man sitting in a corner with his daughter seems to register what is happening. At the height of the celebration, he rises, accepts a cane from his daughter, and we realize that he is blind. He leaves the café in silence, prompting a quiet reflection on what it truly means to see. A film by Mohammad Bakri Mohammad Bakri (1953–2025) was a Palestinian actor and director widely regarded as a guardian of the Palestinian narrative in cinema and theatre. Over a career spanning more than five decades, he delivered seminal performances in films such as “Private”, “Wajib”, “Beyond the Walls”, and “Haifa”, many of which were screened at major international festivals, including Cannes. He also directed the landmark documentary “Jenin, Jenin”. On stage, his monodrama “The Pessoptimist”, performed more than 2,000 times worldwide, transformed individual storytelling into collective memory. Bakri received major international recognition, including Best Actor awards at Locarno, Dubai, and Mar del Plata, as well as a Career Achievement Award at the Cairo Film Festival and other international platforms. He leaves behind a legacy that fundamentally reshaped Palestinian presence on the global cultural stage.