Bader Ben Hirsi

Al-Bader BenYahya al-Hirsi, commonly known as Bader Ben Hirsi, ( _ar. بدر بن هرسي, born 1968) is a British playwright and director of Yemeni ancestry.

Early life and education

Hirsi's father, Yahya al-Hirsi al-Ban, was from the city of Lahij. Al-Ban moved from Yemen to Britain in the 1960's, and it was in that country that Bader Ben Hirsi was born and raised, along with six brothers and seven sisters.cite web | title = Bader Ben Hirsi: a Passage to Yemen|www.al-bab.com| publisher = The British-Yemeni Society | url = http://www.al-bab.com/bys/articles/hirsi00.htm| accessdate = 2006-11-12] Hirsi received a degree in business from the University of Buckingham, and worked in London as an investment banker for several years. However, he decided to move into drama, and received a degree in drama production from Goldsmiths College, part of the University of London. Three of his plays, "A Boring Affair", "Claptrap", and "On the Side of the Angels", were performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Professional career

In 1995, Hirsi visited Yemen for the first time, and in 1996, he married a native Yemeni woman. Four years later, in 2000, Hirsi released the documentary "The English Sheikh and the Yemeni Gentleman",cite web | title = The English Sheikh and the Yemeni Gentleman | publisher = The Internet Movie Database | url = http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0479226/ | accessdate = 2006-11-12] which he directed and produced with the help of British expatriate Tim Mackintosh-Smith.

In 2005, he released "A New Day in Old Sana'a" (a romantic drama shot in San‘a’, the capital), which became the first feature length film to be shot in Yemencite news | title = New Day in Old Sana'a, A | publisher = Arab Film Distribution | date = 2003-09-29| url = http://www.arabfilm.com/item/415/| accessdate = 2006-11-12 ] and the first Yemeni film to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival.cite news | coauthors = Yemen Times staff| title = First feature film on modern Yemeni life to go global | publisher = The Yemen Times | date = 2003-09-29| url = http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=672&p=culture&a=1 | accessdate = 2006-11-12 ] Hirsi himself had a cameo as a djinni at the end of the film.cite web | last = Chartrand| first = Harvey| title = Bader Ben Hirsi: Magic Realism in Old Sana'a | publisher = GreenCine LLC | date = 2006-09-29| url = http://www.greencine.com/article?action=view&articleID=337 | accessdate = 2006-12-12] After the film won the award for best Arabic film at the Cairo International Film Festival, Egypt's Ministry of Culture presented him with an award of 100,000 Egyptian pounds for "his role in promoting Arabic films."cite news | title = Finland's "Mother of Mine" steals show at Cairo film festival| publisher = People's Daily | date = 2005-12-10| url = http://english.people.com.cn/200512/10/eng20051210_227044.html | accessdate = 2006-11-12 ]

References

External links

* [http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/filmography.html?p_id=424687 Profile] of Hirsi at New York Times Movies dead link|date=December 2007
*imdb|id=2026756|name=Bader Ben Hirsi
*cite web |url= http://www.mfmk.ru/m/eng/concourh.htm|title=The program of films of The second International festival of Muslim cinema |accessdate=2007-01-14|work= МФМК