Hatem Ali, Influential Syrian Director, Actor, Dies at 581 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteHatem Ali, the influential Syrian multi-hyphenate whose hit historical TV dramas provided collective insight across the Arab world on the roots and complexities of the region’s turbulence, died on Tuesday at 58.
The cause of death, which took place in a Cairo hotel, was a heart attack, according to multiple Middle East news reports.
Born in 1962 in Syria’s Golan Heights, the strategic region occupied by Israel in 1967, Ali started out writing short stories and plays in which he also performed. In 1986 he graduated from the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus with an acting degree.
After starting out in showbiz as an actor, Ali segued into directing during the 1990s helming several made-for-TV feature films, including The Long Night, a potent drama about the lives of three dissidents released from a Syrian prison after 20 years of incarceration that in 2009 won the top prize at Italy’s Taormina Film Festival.
Image Credit: El Gouna Film Festival
