• Source: Leila Sansour

Leila Sansour (Arabic: ليلى صنصور; Russian: Лейла Сансур), is a Russian-born Palestinian film director and film producer. She is the founder and chief executive officer of Open Bethlehem, a non-governmental foundation established to promote and protect the life and heritage of the city of Bethlehem. Sansour developed the Bethlehem Passport in partnership with the city council and governor of Bethlehem. Pope Benedict XVI became the first recipient of the Bethlehem passport when he accepted the citizenship of Bethlehem from Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in December 2005.




Early life and education


Leila Sansour was born in Moscow on 16 February 1966, to a Palestinian father and a Russian mother. Sansour is from an old Palestinian Roman Catholic family. Her father Anton was teaching mathematics at Moscow State University. Sansour and her family moved to Bethlehem in 1972. Her father became one of the founders of the Bethlehem University, previously a Catholic seminary.
Sansour studied at the Sorbonne, Moscow State University and the University of Warwick.




Career


Sansour is a film director who produced the film Jeremy Hardy vs. the Israeli Army [2003], following the British comedian Jeremy Hardy and his travails during the siege of Bethlehem in 2002. She began her film work in television and produced the series Cultural Portraits for Al Jazeera, featuring profiles of prominent Arabs who had made a significant world contribution in the arts, science or politics.
Her most recent work is the film and awareness campaign Open Bethlehem. The film screened in festivals in the U.K., and toured Canada in September 2016, screening in Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto, and Edmonton. Open Bethlehem is an international campaign that works to promote global engagement with Bethlehem as a real and contemporary city in the Middle East. It does so by supporting the distribution of communication tools about Bethlehem to boost international interest and awareness and by promoting visits to Bethlehem through established and specialized tour operators. The campaign also works to develop a network of passionate ambassadors for the city through the Bethlehem Passport Program.




Personal life


Sansour married the English writer Nicholas Blincoe, having met while studying at Warwick. The couple reside in London.




References






External links


Leila Sansour at IMDb
Leila Sansour at "Dreams of a nation", Columbia University
Open Bethlehem film and campaign

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Sinema Palestina
• Leila Sansour
• Sansour
• Larissa Sansour
• Jeremy Hardy vs. the Israeli Army
• Jeremy Hardy
• International Solidarity Movement
• List of Palestinian Christians
• British Palestinians
• International reactions to the Israel–Hamas war
• Venice Biennale