Country’s film industry and former president Shimon Peres react with dismay at news that the multi-award-winner has died from cancer

Multi-award-winning Israeli actor-director Ronit Elkabetz has died aged 51 from cancer, it has been announced. The daughter of Moroccan immigrants, Elkabetz’s most successful film was also her most recent: Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, in which she starred as an orthodox Jewish woman attempting to obtain a religious divorce; she also co-directed and wrote it with her brother Shlomi. The film won numerous awards, and was nominated for the best foreign language film Golden Globe in 2015.

News of Elkabetz’s death was greeted with dismay across the Israeli film industry, with fellow director Amos Gitai saying: “It’s no wonder she captivated the world’s attention, she was loved by everyone ... she was simply spectacular.” Former president Shimon Peres said in a statement that Elkabetz was “an extraordinary cultural ambassador for the state of Israel” and that “on the various stages of the world, Ronit represented the citizens of Israel and the state of Israel with great pride, creativity and beauty”.

Elkabetz’s breakthrough role, internationally, was The Band’s Visit, the 2007 culture-clash comedy about an Egyptian police band who are stuck in a restaurant overnight while attempting to reach an Arab cultural centre in Israel. Directed by Eran Kolirin, Elkabetz played the restaurant owner, and the film screened at the Cannes film festival before a successful release in Europe and the US.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ronit Elkabetz starring in Gett: the Trial of Viviane Amsalem. Photograph: Everett/REX/Shutterstock

Elkabetz had been acting on film since 1990 (after working as a model) and her first role, in The Intended, was opposite Shuli Rand, a celebrated actor who later became a Haredi (ultra-orthodox) Jew. In 1994 she won an Ophir (Israeli film academy award) for best supporting actress for Sh’chur, a drama set in Israel’s Moroccan-émigré community, and in 2001 won the Ophir for best actress for Late Marriage, a comedy set in Israel’s Georgian-émigré community.

Elkabetz, meanwhile, had largely relocated to Paris, spending time as a student at Ariane Mnouchkine’s celebrated Théâtre du Soleil, and began working in French-language cinema with the 2001 comedy Origine Contrôlée.

In 2004, Elkabetz made her directorial debut, To Take a Wife, the first in a series of films about the unhappily married Viviane Amsalem. Reportedly based on her parents’ own difficult relationship, Elkabetz co-wrote and co-directed with her younger brother Shlomi. In 2008, Elkabetz followed it up with a second instalment, Shiva aka Seven Days, and Gett comprised the third examination of the character.

Elkabetz also continued to appear in French films, including the André Téchiné-directed The Girl on the Train, the Fanny Ardant-directed Ashes and Blood, and the Marseille-set thriller Turk’s Head.

Elkabetz is survived by architect Avner Yasharon, who she married in 2010, and their two children.