While promoting his latest film, Miral, which debuted in the US and UK last autumn, Alexander Siddig spoke about religion, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how Star Trek dealt with religion.
In Miral, Siddig plays the father of a Palestinian woman raised at the Dar Al-Tifel Institute after the death of her mother. Siddig chose to take part in the movie for two reasons. “Firstly it was to be directed by Julian Schnabel, an eminent director,” he said. “The second reason was that I thought the trouble in Israel had been going on so long that the reasons why the whole thing started in the first place had been forgotten by everybody. Arguments have a way of morphing over time. This film doesn’t outline all the reasons for the conflict in Israel but it does focus people’s attention on its origins. I thought that might be useful.”