Hanna Azoulaï-Hasfari was born in Beersheva to Moroccan parents. She attended the Boyer High School, a Jerusalem boarding school, did her army service in the Army Theater Troupe, and studied at Tel Aviv University. She grew up to become a leading figure of Israeli stage and screen, both as an actress and as a screenwriter. In one of her earliest films, Nadia (1986), she played the title role, portraying an Israeli Arab teenager attending a primarily Jewish boarding school. 

Azoulaï-Hasfari collaborated with her husband, director Shmuel Hasfari, on the screenplay for the feature film Pra…