Le DG de l'OIT salue l'adoption de la loi sur la grève au Maroc et sa validation par la Cour constitutionnelle    Avril diplomatique : Quand la France préside, le Maroc s'impose    Soudan du Sud: le CPS de l'UA appelle à un dialogue inclusif et véritable pour rétablir la confiance, l'unité nationale et la paix    Lancement d'un vol direct Agadir-Amsterdam    Le groupement « Boluda Towage-Marsa Maroc » désigné pour assurer les activités de remorquage et d'assistance à Nador West Med    Sortie du trésor à l'international : le Maroc émet un emprunt obligataire de 2 milliards d'euros    Coupe du Monde 2026 : L'interdiction de voyage menace la participation de plus de 40 pays    Températures prévues pour le jeudi 03 avril 2025    Genomia MDATA et la Fondation Mohammed VI des Sciences et de la Santé : une alliance au profit de la médecine de précision en Afrique    Abderrahman Boukhaffa décoré par le Roi Charles III pour ses contributions à la diversité linguistique au Canada    Rabat: Mehdi Qotbi reçoit une délégation du parlement andin    Dislog Group prend 70 % d'Afrobiomedic et développe son pôle santé    Al Barid Bank signe une année 2024 remarquable    Ghita Triki : "Résonance chromatique s'inscrit dans les programmes de visibilisation des cultures du Maroc et d'Afrique"    Installation de Mohammed El Habib Belkouch, Délégué interministériel aux Droits de l'Homme    Parlement andin: Le Maroc, «un partenaire clé»    Festival Mawazine: Will Smith et Kid Cudi en têtes d'affiche    Aziz Akhannouch, la tercera fortuna de Marruecos después de Benjelloun y Sefrioui (Forbes)    Zagora : Deux soldats tués lors d'une collision et un blessé    Maroc : CEMA bois de l'Atlas investit 150 MDH pour moderniser ses infrastructures    Algeria reports shooting down Malian Akinci drone    L'ONMT a opté pour Finn Partners pour organiser son roadshow en Amérique du Nord.    Real Sociedad : Inquiétude autour de Nayef Aguerd, sorti sur blessure    Sebta : 508 mineurs marocains accueillis en 2024    E-commerce : Entre engagements des Etats et défis des startups innovantes    Charles Thépaut, expert de la région MENA et de la lutte contre la désinformation au Quai d'Orsay, nommé premier conseiller à l'ambassade de France au Maroc    Ligue 1 : Hakimi et Ben Seghir nommés au prix Marc-Vivien Foé    Fraude fiscale : Carlo Ancelotti jugé ce mercredi    Le temps qu'il fera ce mercredi 2 avril 2025    CHU Ibn Rochd: les futurs dentistes poursuivent leur boycott des stages    Copa del Rey : Le Real finaliste au bout des prolongations d'un match fou !    1⁄2 Finale. Copa del Rey : Aujourd'hui, Atlético - Barça: Horaire ? Chaînes ?    1⁄4 de Finale. CCAF: Cet après-midi, la RSB est à Abidjan pour sécuriser le retour    Handball: Le Maroc accueille la 1ère édition du championnat du monde masculin U17    Milan : Hicham Lahlou, membre du jury du Salone Satellite Award 2025    La Dolce Vita à Mogador : Le Cinéma Italien à l'honneur à Essaouira du 23 au 26 Avril 2025    Commerce extérieur : le déficit continue de se creuser    L'Alliance des Etats du Sahel établit un droit de douane commun    Somalie. Les Etats-Unis ont le contrôle exclusif des bases aériennes et des ports.    Pardon et réconciliation au Niger, libération d'anciens hauts responsables politiques et militaires    Gabon. La campagne pour la présidentielle est ouverte    Un Festival pour promouvoir la cuisine ivoirienne    Trump menace Harvard de priver l'université de 9 milliards de dollars de subventions fédérales    Royaume-Uni : Le roi Charles reprend ses fonctions publiques après un traitement contre le cancer    Tamwilcom : Plus de 47,5 MMDH de financements en 2024    Aïd al-Fitr : Attention aux excès alimentaires après le jeûne !    L'Algérie revendique l'abattage d'un drone malien Akinci    Une chanson qui relie le passé au présent... Quand la voix de Hassan II rencontre les rythmes d'aujourd'hui    







Merci d'avoir signalé!
Cette image sera automatiquement bloquée après qu'elle soit signalée par plusieurs personnes.



Diaspo #119 : Karim Saidi, from the army to the cinema industry
Publié dans Yabiladi le 23 - 11 - 2019

This 46-year-old French-Moroccan actor shot for Steven Spielberg and Abdellatif Kechiche. In Morocco, he also shot about forty Italian, Moroccan and German films. Speaking to Yabiladi, he recalls his debut and the turning points of his career.
«I was born again at the age of 29», said Karim Saidi, a French-Moroccan actor and a cinema lover. It is indeed at the age of 29 that his life took a new turn: that of a rebirth.
Karim Saidi was born on July 17, 1973 in La Seyne-sur-Mer, in Provence, to Moroccan parents: his father is from Nador and his mother is from Tan-Tan. At the age of eighteen, he joined the army with the 2nd Marine Infantry Regiment, based at Le Mans. He left for Chad, Bosnia and Rwanda during the genocide in 1994, and then left the army three years later.
«What I saw in these countries at war was tragic ... I served the French state for three years and then I decided to resign because I thought I had learned from the army everything it had to 'offer'», Karim Saidi said. «I did not picture myself working for the army for fifteen years until retirement! I knew I was going to kill myself if I stayed there», he admitted.
Once he turned the page of this military chapter, he opened a restaurant in Saint-Tropez, between 1994 and 1999, while he was still in his twenties. One day, humorist and imitator Yves Lecoq, who is best known for impersonating Jacques Chirac and Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, came to dine in his kebab restaurant. «He told me that I had the energy to be an actor. That day, he planted a seed. I sold my restaurant to try to become an actor and I found my way».
Embody rather than play characters
Karim Saidi moved to Paris and joined Studio Pygmalion, a training center for amateur and professional actors. «I attended evening classes for beginners. After a month and a half, I went to afternoon classes and was blown away». The actor remembers that «growing up, [he] was not good at school, so skipping a class was wonderful» but with these classes, he learned how to «build trust, channel [his] emotions and be able to take them out at the right moment on the set of a film».
Karim Saidi defines himself above all as an actor : «An actor is someone who has always wanted to do that, who took classes very young and plays characters. The actor is an accident! He interprets, embodies the character. What is the difference between playing and embodying?»
«'Playing', I do not know what that means. I have always been interpreting and embodying characters».
Karim Saidi
At Studio Pygmalion, a second seed was planted in him when he met with Paul Belmondo, the son of Jean-Paul Belmondo. He secured an appointment for the casting of the film «Munich», by Steven Spielberg (2005). Saidi took part in the shooting that was set in Budapest for five weeks. «If I did not have an agent, I could not have done this casting. The cinema world requires a lot of perseverance : to have an important role, you have to have an agent. But to have an agent, you have to make movies. As long as you have not made a film, you do not have an agent, and as long as you do not have an agent, you do not have a casting! It's a vicious circle».
His films as «a bridge between Europe and Africa»
In Budapest, the shooting of «Munich» made him discover the world of cinema. «I was on a little cloud. It was difficult to come down to Earth. I had a little phase of depression after the movie. It was my first film, I did not know how the cinema world worked ... I did not have a press officer to talk about me. For a year and a half, I did not work because I did not have a role, it was difficult», he recalled.
Karim Saidi also remembers the «folkloric» film «The Life of Adele» (2013), by French-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche. «I shot with him seventeen days and I only appear for five seconds in the film. It was a good experience and a bad adventure : good experience because I saw how Abdellatif Kechiche works, he has a way of working that speaks to me. Bad adventure because it was a folk shoot, which was absolutely unstructured».
The actor eventually moved to Morocco, where he went first in 2004 for the burial of his father. He then went on to shoot about forty Moroccan, Italian and German films all over Morocco. «I managed to build my career here», he says. He will come back in December for the International Film and Migration Festival in Agadir, which is to pay him a tribute.
Karim Saidi also plans to get to the other side of the camera, as a director. He wrote three scenarios and tells us «I am in the social, the human. My films will always be a bridge between Europe and Africa».


Cliquez ici pour lire l'article depuis sa source.