Fatima Al-Banawi

Al-Banawi was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She graduated with a degree in Counseling Psychology from Effat University in Jeddah.[3] Then she started to work against violence at the Family Protection Society in Jeddah.[4] In the meantime, she completed her master's degree in Theological Studies from Harvard University specialized on Women, Gender, and Islamic Studies.[1]

During her undergraduate period, she attended an advanced oil painting course at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. She worked as a social development and women's empowerment consultant at the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) for few months before entering the performing arts.[3]

She founded the story telling project called 'The Other Story Project' in 2015.[5] Through the project, she has collected almost 5000 real life stories from strangers.[6] By using these lives, Al-Banawi later directed the short film A Blink of an Eye. Meanwhile, she has traveled locally and internationally to perform human stories.[4] Later in 2018 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris call her the 'Sophie Calle of Saudi Arabia' upon the warm reception of her performance "Amours Saoudiennes" . In the same year, she was selected as a Next Generation Leader by Time Magazine.[1]

By using her experiences and gathered information from strangers in her hometown of Jeddah between 2015 and 2018, she wrote her first book, 'The Other Story'.[3] In 2010, she co-founded the 'Theatre of the Oppressed Chapter' located in Jeddah. Then she started to perform many stage plays at the theater. Later some of its plays were performed at Harvard.[1][4]

In 2016, she made her film debut in the award-winning Saudi feature film, Barakah Meets Barakah.[7] She was internationally recognized with the role and made the way for Saudi Arabian cinema.[4] The film was selected as the Saudi Arabian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards (the second time the country made a submission for the Oscars).[8] The film premiered at the Forum section of the 66th Berlin International Film Festival making it the first Saudi feature film to premiere at the festival.[9]

Then she appeared in the television serial Bashar and the short Going South. The latter was represented at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. In 2019, she made a special appearance in the feature film Roll’em and television serial Om AlQalayed.[1] In 2019, she directed the stage play The Straight Circle Play in which she also played the lead role.[3]

In 2020, Al-Banawi appeared in the Egyptian web series Paranormal which was based on the supernatural book series Ma Waraa Al Tabiaa written by Ahmed Khaled Tawfik.[10][11] In the series, she played a supportive role of 'Nargis'. The series was released on 5 November 2020 on Netflix, becoming Netflix's first Egyptian Original.[12]

In 2020, she made her maiden film screenplay through the film Basma. In mid-2020, she wrote and directed her first short film Until We See Light. Then during the global COVID-19 pandemic, she co-wrote, co-directed and starred in television serial Al-Shak Series, which she shot fully from home during the lockdown.[1]

• Fatima Al-Banawi at IMDb