Hiam Abbass was brought up in a town north of Galilee, in Israel. In 1987, she made her first on-screen appearance in Wedding in Galilee by Michel Khleifi, in which she plays a woman raped by her husband. After some time in London, Hiam Abbass took up residence in France in the late eighties. She played an FLN militant in Living in Paradise and Depardieu’s wife in A Loving Father (Aime ton père). However, the actress achieved fame thanks to her role as a mother who takes up bellydancing in Red Satin (Satin rouge), by Tunisian director Raja Amari (2002). She also played the mother of a kamikaze in Paradise Now (2005) and that of the emancipated sister in The Syrian Bride a film by Eran Riklis, who would later give her the role of the stubborn heroine in Lemon Tree(2008). Though she has worked with the most acclaimed filmmakers in the Middle East, from Yousry Nasrallah to Amos Gitaï (Free Zone in 2005), the actress is also highly sought out in France: directed by Patrice Chéreau and Jean Becker (The Gardener), she lent her voice to animated characters in Azur & Asmar. This actress without borders has also crossed paths with American filmmakers Jarmusch (The Limits of Control) and Thomas McCarthy (The Visitor). Later, a nomadic film director, Julian Schnabel, entrusted her with the role of Hind Husseini, who runs an orphanage for Palestinian children in the film Miral, presented in Venice in 2010. In recent years, we have seen her in the productions by some of the most acclaimed directors in world film: Munich (Steven Spielberg), Exodus (Ridley Scott) and Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve).