Prize for Best Play awarded to Ala Dakka, Prize for Best Actress to Hanna Azoulay Hasfari, and Prize for Most Promising Actress awarded to Roni Shteckler at Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre, 2023
Watan (nationality in Arabic) doesn’t have much luck, but one day he discovers that he has been chosen to be a citizen of a new developing small Island nation called Manegal. Watan, who feels that his future as an Arab in Israel is not going to improve anytime soon, decides to embark on a journey to obtain a passport so he can start over somewhere else. But the bizarre condition set by the passport office leads him to a head-on confrontation with everything he knows. Will Watan agree to give up everything for the Promised Land?
Ala Dakka is a playwright, screenwriter, and actor in film, television, and theatre.
Writing: Red Skies (Television Channel 13, co-writer), All the Way Home, children’s play, and Me and My Brother Salach (short film), which received a production grant from the New Fund for Cinema and Television in 2023.
Selected acting roles in theatre: Winter Funeral by Hanoch Levin, directed by Yair Sherman, You Don’t Fight Duels Nowadays (Beer Sheva Municipal Theater), Yerma, Death of a Salesman (The Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv), The Maids (Elad Theatre), and The Thin Soldier by Hanoch Levin.
Cinema: Beyond the Mountains and Hills, directed by Eran Kolirin, Victory Picture, directed by Avi Nesher, The Cousin, directed by Tzahi Grad, Monkey House, directed by Avi Nesher, and To Burn the Sky, directed by Imri Matalon.
Television: Midrasha Season 2, Fauda Seasons, East Side Season 1, and Aviram Katz.
Ala Dakka was nominated for an Ofir Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Lior Zakai is a director, creator, and theatre teacher. She graduated with honors from the Theater Directing and Teaching Program at Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and the Arts (BA), and is an MA student in the Interdisciplinary Arts Program at Tel Aviv University.
Her directing works include Manegalian Passport, which won the Awards for Best Play, Best Actress, and Best Promising Actress (Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre, 2023), It’s Just a Play (Soliko Festival, Hashaa Theatre for Children and Youth), Elinor (Short Theater Festival, Tzavta Theatre), Boobs, which won the Awards for Best Play and Audience Choice (Theatronetto, 2023), Yarmolsh and Norsh (Playwrights Project, Tzavta Theatre), Tell Me What I Want (Hameshulash Theater, Habima National Theatre), and Scream ( 24K Project, Hameretz 2).
During her studies, she won the Kikoine scholarships for 2017 and 2018, and the Ahla Halevi scholarship for 2019.
Productions she participated in include The Dybbuk – Director’s Version (Habait Theatre), Girlfriends Club (Givatayim Theatre), The End (Tzavta Theatre), and New Instructions (Tel Aviv Municipality).
Running Time: 75 minutes