Palestinian actress and film director Hiam Abbass began her screen career towards the end of 1980s and appeared in television movie ‘La nuit miraculeuse’ (1989) and an episode each of tv series ‘Antoine Rives, juge du terrorisme’ (1993), ‘3000 scénarios contre un virus’ (1995) and ‘Le juste’ (1997). She also made her film debut and acted in the French films ‘When the Cat's Away’ (1996) and ‘Living in Paradise’ (1998) as well as the Palestinine film ‘Haifa’ (1996). During this time, she acted in short films ‘Raddem’ and ‘Histoire naturelle’ (both 1998) too as well as a couple of more television movie, ‘Venise est une femme’ (1998) and ‘Mix-cité’ (2000).
She was next seen in the role of Lilia in the musical romance drama film ‘Satin Rouge’ (2002), Amal in the comedy drama ‘The Syrian Bride’ (2004), Said's Mother in the crime drama thriller ‘Paradise Now’ (2005), Leila in the comedy drama ‘Free Zone’ (2005) and Marie Claude Hamshari in the historical drama ‘Munich’ (2005). The Syrian Bride’ and ‘Free Zone’ won her nominations at the ‘Awards of the Israeli Film Academy’ for best actress and best supporting actress respectively. Additionally, ‘The Syrian Bride’ also won Hiam Abbass the best European actress nomination at the ‘European Film Awards’. For the Steven Spielberg film ‘Munich’, she also turned a consultant and dialogue coach.
The period also saw her directing two short films ‘Le pain’ (2001, also acted in) and ‘La danse éternelle’ (2004) and acting in a few more shorts ‘Le mariage en papier’ (2001), ‘Noctambules’ (2003) and ‘Sur les traces de Mélanie’ (2005). ‘Le pain’ won nominations for best short film at the ‘Torino Film Festival’ (Prize of the City of Torino) and ‘Namur International Festival of French-Speaking Film’ while ‘La danse éternelle’ claimed the ‘Amiens International Film Festival’ Prix des Enfants de la Licorne award.
In the second half of the decade, Hiam Abbass portrayed the roles of Mouna, the mother of an illegal Syrian immigrant in the drama film ‘The Visitor’ (2007); Salma Zidane, a Palestinian widow in the war drama ‘Lemon Tree’ (2008); the mother of an Iraqi soldier in the romance war drama ‘Dawn of the World’ (2008); Raghda Halaby, the Palestinian American living in the post-9/11 suburban Chicago in the drama ‘Amreeka’ (2009); the driver in the mystery crime drama film ‘The Limits of Control’ (2009) and Hind al-Husseini , the humanitarian in the biographical political film ‘Miral’ (2010). The first two films together won her the ‘FICE Award’ for Best Actress while second film additionally won her the best actress awards at the ‘Asia Pacific Screen Awards’, ‘Awards of the Israeli Film Academy’ and ‘Cinefan – Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema’. ‘Miral’ won her an award at the ‘Women Film Critics Circle Awards’.
The period also saw her in acting in short films like ‘Fatoush’ (2008), ‘Blanche’ (2008) and ‘Bullet Time’ (2010) as well as tv movies ‘Béthune sur Nil’ (2008). Additionally, she lent her voice in the 2006 film ‘Azur & Asmar: The Princes' Quest’ and acted in an episode of tv series ‘Histoires de vies’ (2010).
Hiam Abbass’s other films of the decade were ‘Ligne 208’, ‘L'ange de goudron’ (both 2001), ‘We Need a Vacation’, ‘A Loving Father’ (both 2002), ‘Bab el shams’, Nadia et Sarra (2004), ‘The Demon Stirs’, ‘The Nativity Story’ (both 2005), ‘Petites révélations’ (2006), ‘Conversations with My Gardener’, ‘Disengagement’ (both 2007), ‘The Feelings Factory’, ‘Un roman policier’, ‘Kandisha’, ‘Pomegranates and Myrrh’ (all 2008), ‘Spy(Ies)’, ‘Mateo Falcone’, ‘Human Zoo’, ‘Persécution’, ‘Everyday Is a Holiday’ (all 2009), ‘Suite parlée’ and ‘I Am Slave’ (both 2010).
From 2011 to 2015, she worked in the drama movie ‘A Bottle in the Gaza Sea’ (2011), the comedy dramas ‘The Source’ (2011) and ‘Rock the Casbah’ (2013) and the biblical epic film ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’ (2014). On television, she acted in the four-part miniseries ‘The Promise’ (2011) and the two-part miniseries ‘The Red Tent’ (2014). In between in 2012, she made her feature film directorial debut with the drama film ‘Inheritance’ which went on to win nominations for best film at the 'Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival', ‘Gijón International Film Festival’ and 'São Paulo International Film Festival'.
In 2017, Hiam Abbass played the role of Freysa Sadeghpour, the leader of the replicant underground in the neo-noir sci-fi film ‘Blade Runner 2049’ and Oum Yazan, a mother who tries to keep her family safe during war time in the war drama ‘Insyriated’. The two films have a Rotten Tomato score of 88% and 89% respectively. The same year, she became a part of the four-part miniseries ‘The State’ too. In 2018, she became a part of the HBO’s satirical black comedy drama series ‘Succession’ and the following year joined the cast of Hulu’s comedy drama series ‘Ramy’ (2 seasons, till 2020). In the first of the two series, she played the character of Marcia Roy, the sophisticated third wife of Logan Roy (the billionaire founder of media and entertainment conglomerate) while in the latter, she played the role of Maya Hassan, mother of the lead character Ramy. She was a part of the main cast in the first two seasons of ‘Succession’ and recurring cast in its third season (till 2021). The series won her the 2019 ‘IGN Summer Movie Awards’ in the Best TV Ensemble category. Both ‘Succession’ and ‘Ramy’ received positive reviews from critics and have a Rotten Tomato score of 94% and 96% respectively. In 2019, she lent her voice in the animated war drama movie ‘The Swallows of Kabul’ and the next year starred in the drama film ‘Gaza mon amour’ as Siham. In 2022, she became a part of a couple of more tv series – ‘Oussekine’ and ‘The Old Man’.
Her other film credits since 2011 are ‘The Bag of Flour’ (2012), ‘Games of Clouds & Rain’ (2013), ‘May in the Summer’ (2013), ‘Peace After Marriage’ (2013), ‘De guerre lasse’ (2014), ‘Dégradé’ (2015), ‘The Sense of Wonder’ (2015), ‘Foreign Body’ (2016), ‘I Still Hide to Smoke’ (2016), ‘Carnivores’ (2018) and ‘Brother’ (2019). Hiam Abbass also appeared in short films ‘Samarkande’ (2013), ‘Nothing Escapes My Eyes’ (2014), ‘Libérable’ (2015), ‘In Vitro’ (2019), ‘Sofa So Good’ (2020) and ‘Night’ (2021) as well as television series ‘The OA’ (2016, 2 episodes).
