Hiam Abbass
هيام عباس‎ היאם עבאס‎
Abbass at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival[1]
Born	(1960-11-30) 30 November 1960 (age 63) Nazareth, Israel[2]
Citizenship	Israel France
Occupations	Actress film director
Years active	1989–present
Spouse	Zinedine Soualem ​ (divorced)​
Children	2

Hiam Abbass (Arabic: هيام عباس; Hebrew: היאם עבאס; born 30 November 1960), also spelled Hiyam Abbas, is a Palestinian actress and film director with Israeli and French citizenship.^[2] She is known for her roles in films such as The Syrian Bride (2004), Paradise Now (2005), Free Zone (2005), Munich (2005), The Visitor (2007), Lemon Tree (2008), Insyriated (2017), and Blade Runner 2049 (2017). She gained prominence for her role as Marcia Roy in the HBO drama series Succession (2018–2023). She has also acted in the Channel 4 series The Promise (2011), the Lifetime miniseries The Red Tent (2014), the Hulu comedy series Ramy (2019–present), and the Hulu drama series The Old Man (2022).

Early and personal life

Abbass was born on 30 November 1960 to a family of Muslim Arabs in Nazareth, Israel,^[3][4] and was raised in the nearby village of Deir Hanna. Since the late 1980s, she has lived in Paris, France, and holds French citizenship.^[5]

During the filming of the Steven Spielberg film Munich (2005), Abbass lived in a hotel with Israeli and Palestinian actors for three months. During that time, they had many discussions that "helped both sides grow closer." In an interview in 2006, Abbass said, "I still remember how difficult it was for the Arab actors to manhandle the Israeli actors in the first scene where the Israeli national team is taken hostage."^[2]

Film career

Abbass is known for her roles in Red Satin (2002), Haifa (1996), Paradise Now (2005), The Syrian Bride (2004), Free Zone (2005), Dawn of the World (2008), The Visitor (2008), Lemon Tree (2008), Every Day Is a Holiday (2009), and Amreeka (2009). She appeared in Spielberg's film Munich, depicting the response to the Munich massacre, and also served as a dialect and acting consultant.^[2]

She directed two short films, Le Pain (2001), and La Danse éternelle (2004). She portrays humanitarian Hind al-Husseini in Julian Schnabel's film Miral (2010), based on the life of Husseini and her orphanage.

In 2002, she appeared in Satin Rouge by Raja Amari, a film about the self-discovery of a middle aged Tunisian widow.^{[citation needed]} She also a similar role in The Syrian Bride, about a Druze woman eager to break down barriers.

Abbass appeared in the French films Le sac de farine and Le temps de la balle.

In 2008, she played the mother of an illegal Syrian immigrant in Tom McCarthy's movie The Visitor, and the mother of an Iraqi soldier in Abbas Fahdel's film Dawn of the World.

Also in 2008, she played the principal role in Israeli director Eran Riklis's film Lemon Tree (Etz Limon in Hebrew). For this role, she won Best Performance by an Actress at the 2008 Asia Pacific Screen Awards. In Jim Jarmusch's 2009 film The Limits of Control, in the role of Driver, she recites in Classical Arabic one of the film's leitmotif-phrases, "He who thinks he is bigger than the rest must go to the cemetery. There he will see what life really is."

Abbass also appears in A Bottle in the Gaza Sea (2011), a French-Québecois-Israeli film produced by Thierry Binisti. It is based upon the young adult novel Une bouteille dans la mer de Gaza by Valérie Zenatti. She plays the role of Naïm's mother.

In 2012, she was named as a member of the Jury for the Main Competition at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.^[6] She made her directorial feature film debut with The Inheritance in 2012.

In 2017 she played Freysa, the head of the replicant freedom movement, in Blade Runner 2049.

Abbass has also acted in TV shows such as The Promise (2011), The State (2017), Succession (2018–2023), and Ramy (2019–present).

In 2023, Abbass starred in the documentary film Bye Bye Tiberias which follows her decision to pursue her dream of becoming actress, directed by her daughter, Lina Soualem.^[7] It premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival and screened at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival in September 2023.^[8][9][10]

Filmography

As actor

Film

Television

As director

Awards and nominations