{"id":12021,"date":"2023-01-20T11:41:52","date_gmt":"2023-01-20T11:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/saudi-arabias-debut-islamic-arts-biennale-spotlights-18-local-artists\/"},"modified":"2023-01-20T11:41:52","modified_gmt":"2023-01-20T11:41:52","slug":"saudi-arabias-debut-islamic-arts-biennale-spotlights-18-local-artists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=12021","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabia\u2019s debut Islamic Arts Biennale spotlights 18 local artists"},"content":{"rendered":"
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French Tunisian actor Adam Bessa\u00a0discusses his role in award-winning film \u2018Harka\u2019<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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\nDUBAI: \u201cYour duty as an artist is to be the voice of people who don\u2019t have a voice,\u201d says French-Tunisian actor Adam Bessa. \u201cThe reality of the world is pretty simple. You have money, you exist. You don\u2019t have money, you don\u2019t exist.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nBessa is discussing \u201cHarka,\u201d director Lotfy Nathan\u2019s powerful narrative debut. It\u2019s a film that took both an emotional and physical toll on Bessa, who lived with gasoline smugglers on the border with Libya and isolated himself from the outside world in preparation for his role as an impoverished Tunisian street-seller.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\u201cYou have to try to show the beauty, the importance, the struggle,\u201d he adds. \u201cMaybe the film is a comedy, so you show how funny people are. Maybe it\u2019s a drama, so you show the reality of people\u2019s lives. It\u2019s just your duty to be the voice of those who don\u2019t have one.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\u201cHarka\u201d is director Lotfy Nathan\u2019s powerful narrative debut. (Supplied)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\nBessa\u2019s extraordinary performance in \u201cHarka,\u201d which had its Middle East and North Africa premiere at the RSIFF, has attracted widespread acclaim. In May he won the best performance prize at Cannes\u2019 Un Certain Regard (shared with Vicky Krieps for \u201cCorsage\u201d), and last month picked up the Red Sea Competition Best Actor award in Jeddah.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nWorking closely with Nathan, who won the Red Sea Competition Best Director accolade, Bessa spent the best part of four months preparing for the role of Ali, a young man who sells black market gasoline on the streets of Sidi Bouzid. When his father dies, Ali not only finds himself burdened with his father\u2019s debts, he is also responsible for the wellbeing of his two sisters. Risking his life to buy gasoline on the border with Libya in a bid to make ends meet, he is nevertheless forced to turn over most of his earnings in extortion payments to the police.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\nIt\u2019s a film that took both an emotional and physical toll on Bessa. (Supplied)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n\u201cWe knew we had to take time to prepare, so we talked about the script and the character and then I went to Tunisia for maybe three weeks,\u201d says Bessa, who was born in Paris to Tunisian parents. \u201cI isolated myself and started to put myself in character. Then I spent two weeks on location with the smugglers. I spent time with them, went to Libya, really lived with them and then during the shoot I never stopped being Ali, because for me it was very hard to disconnect. He\u2019s so special and so complex and he vibrates on something very special, so, for me, that was the way it had to be done.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nInspired by the true story of Mohamed Bouazizi, whose self-immolation triggered Tunisia\u2019s Jasmine Revolution and the wider Arab Spring, the film doesn\u2019t offer any answers and certainly doesn\u2019t provide any balm. Ali\u2019s existence is harsh and upsetting, although for much of the film Bessa\u2019s performance is remarkably restrained. He is often silent, or converses with only the minimal use of words. When we first meet Ali, he is siphoning petrol from one can to another and living a solitary existence in an abandoned construction site.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nOnly Bessa\u2019s face hints at the character\u2019s inner desperation. When Ali does reach breaking point much later in the film, it\u2019s a powerful and uncomfortable scene to watch. Bessa\u2019s previously contained anger explodes with a level of ferocity that is disquieting.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\nBessa was born in Paris to Tunisian parents. (Supplied)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n\u201cMentally, it was tough,\u201d admits Bessa. \u201cYou put yourself out there and wherever curiosity takes you, you go. And characters like Ali, they live with you forever. Because it\u2019s upsetting. Maybe it\u2019s upsetting because that\u2019s how the world works. Every day the things that happen to Ali are happening somewhere and it\u2019s a burden for every one of us to admit it. Because as much as we live our lives, we\u2019re all connected. So it\u2019s hard to accept and it\u2019s heartbreaking and sometimes it\u2019s depressing. But it is the truth.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nA self-taught actor, Bessa was the film\u2019s only representative at the Red Sea International Film Festival, undertaking interviews with patience and humility and attending the movie\u2019s two screenings. He was also ranked among Screen Daily\u2019s Arab Stars of Tomorrow, alongside the likes of Moroccan writer and director Sofia Alaoui and Lebanon\u2019s Dania Bdeir.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nBessa\u2019s success is all the more remarkable when you consider his backstory. He received his acting break in Algerian director Sofia Djama\u2019s \u201cLes Bienheureux\u201d while working as a fishermen in the south of France.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt\u2019s not that easy, you know,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted to be a football player, it didn\u2019t work. I studied law, I didn\u2019t like it. Then I started working. I was passionate about cinema and tried to get into the business, but it was very complicated, so I stopped trying and went to work as a real estate agent. You make a living for yourself and then all of a sudden you get an opportunity. For me, that opportunity was Sofia Djama\u2019s film.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nA friend of Bessa\u2019s told him there was a casting call for \u201cLes Bienheureux,\u201d so he sent off a tape and eventually met the director in Paris. He hasn\u2019t looked back since.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\u201cFor most people there\u2019s a certain path. But so many stories don\u2019t follow a set path. If you\u2019re passionate about something and you don\u2019t really listen to what everybody tells you to do and you just follow what you want to do, your road becomes weird and narrow and people are like, \u2018Oh, what a journey\u2019. But I think everybody would have a weird journey if they just followed their heart. If you follow what you like and what is inspiring to you, then your road becomes something special.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nHe went on to star in the Matthew Michael Carnahan-directed \u201cMosul,\u201d which followed an Iraqi police unit during the battle to liberate the city from ISIS, and will soon reprise his role as Yaz Kahn in Netflix\u2019s \u201cExtraction 2\u201d alongside Chris Hemsworth. He is also set to star in Tunisian-Canadian film director Meryam Joobeur\u2019s \u201cMotherhood,\u201d which is due for release this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe clear idea is always to follow my instinct,\u201d says Bessa of the directors he works with. \u201cThat\u2019s how I went through life, how I grew up and why I\u2019m where I am now. I follow my instincts. Good story, good director, whatever the name is. I don\u2019t go by names, I don\u2019t go by hype, I go by feeling. If the people inspire me then I\u2019ll work with them. If I feel like we can do something great together, then I\u2019ll do it. If I don\u2019t feel it, then I don\u2019t do it, you know? Even if you fail, when you chose something yourself it doesn\u2019t feel like a failure, it just feels like your life. When you listen to others and you fail, you have regrets, and I hate regrets.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nWhat\u2019s next? More films, for sure. But maybe directing one day?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAbsolutely, why not?\u201d he replies. \u201cNot now, but maybe in the future. It\u2019s a question of stories. It\u2019s not a question of doing things because you\u2019ve got to tick boxes. Maybe I\u2019ll create a brand, maybe I\u2019ll do something else. Maybe I\u2019ll edit books. I don\u2019t know what I\u2019ll do. It\u2019s what inspires me. That\u2019s how I work. I hear stories, I hear people, so if I have an idea or if I meet someone who pitches me a story that I love and I\u2019m comfortable, I\u2019ll do it. It\u2019s a question of people and the right time, the right moment \u2014 doing the right thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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