In an interview with the Spanish daily El País, Moroccan-Spanish actress Mina El Hammani, star of «Raqqa: Spy vs. Spy», reflects on her origins, her passion for her profession, as well as the behind-the-scenes aspects of her performance in this suspense film. Mina talks about the values of work and sacrifice that her parents instilled in her from a young age, which have been decisive in her artistic career. The 30-year-old actress, whose career took off in 2014, looks back on the challenges that marked her professional choice. Raised in a traditional manner, the idea of wanting to become an actress in Spain was not met with enthusiasm. «At first, when I said I wanted to become an actress, there was fear and mistrust, but my family trusted me after seeing my perseverance. I wasn't asking them for financial support. I paved my way honestly, without putting obstacles in anyone's path», she recalls. The daughter of a construction worker and a cook at the Madrid embassy, «the spy of Raqqa», who says she is «proud of her family», describes how much her mother's upbringing shaped her character. «Since the age of seven, my mother repeated to me that I could become whatever I wanted by working hard and making sacrifices. These are values rooted in Moroccan culture. I am very grateful to her because I clung to them from my childhood», she emphasized. The thriller «Raqqa: Spy vs. Spy», a Spanish-Moroccan-German co-production film, tells the adventures of a Russian spy and an undercover Europol agent posing as a nurse from Ceuta. Both, infiltrated within the ranks of Daesh, meet in Syria, in the city of Raqqa, a stronghold of the terrorist organization. Although on opposing sides, the two spies share the same objective: to locate the whereabouts of a notorious jihadist leader in order to eliminate him.
