Castle

Manal Khader

Manal Khader was born in Jerusalem on September 7, 1968. Her father ran a cosmetics factory and her mother had taught mathematics before leaving the job. Born into a bourgeois milieu and having lived in a pretty villa in Ramallh for 16 years, her youth was a happy one - with several exceptions, the humiliating presence of Israeli soldiers, passing through checkpoints to visit her grandparents in Jordan, and the fact that her father's family had been driven out of Jerusalem. As far as studies were concerned there was no way in this atheist family that children, boy or girl, would fail. So much so that in 1986, when the first Intifada began and the Palestinian faculty closed, Manal and her brother were sent to Germany, under the protection of an uncle. She first felt like a stranger there, especially since she didn't speak the language. But she managed to learn German successfully and to complete her studies. At the same time, she became active in Palestinian student organizations. As a result, she was repeatedly refused a visa when she wanted to return to Ramallah. On the other hand, Manal started out as a freelance journalist in Germany, and in 1992 she became a Middle East correspondent for ARD, Germany's leading television station. Before the Intifada, a friend, Elia Suleiman, had made her read the script of "Divine Intervention". She didn't imagine she would be in the film, but a few weeks before shooting, the filmmaker offered her the lead role. Stunned, Manal hesitated and finally accepted. A major film, "Divine Intervention" denounces - with a smile and through a gallery of characters - the permanent and daily violence that has gangrened and destroyed Palestinian society. Manal Khader's participation in the film is pivotal insofar as she personally reported to Suleiman many of the incidents shown in the story, the most striking one being one that took place at a checkpoint. Elia and Manal had a rendezvous to have a cup of coffee in Jerusalem : that day, she decided to defy the checkpoint and when a soldier pointed a rifle at her, she just said 'I'm crossing' and she did what she said she would do. They didn't shoot. The film was well received at the Cannes International Festival and Manal Khader was later given the opportunity to appear in a few other works such as "Everyday is a Holiday" (2009) by Lebanese director Dima Horr or "The Ugly One" (2013) by French Director Eric Baudelaire, but her main activity remains that of a journalist. Since 2010 she has been the Co-editor of Kalamon, a Beirut based cultural quarterly review published in Arabic. In 2015 she co-edited a book titled "Arabic language and social media" together with Lebanese linguist and historian Ahmad Baydoun.

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