Dubai: “Your duty as an artist is to be the voice of those who don’t have a voice,” says French-Tunisian actor Adam Bessa. “The reality of the world is very simple. You have money, you exist. You don’t have money, you don’t exist.
Besa discusses “Harka,” the powerful narrative debut of director Lotfi Nathan. It is a film that took an emotional and physical toll on Bessa, who lived with gasoline smugglers on the border with Libya and isolated herself from the outside world in preparation for her role as a poor Tunisian street-seller. Used to take
“You have to try to show the beauty, the importance, the struggle,” he added. “Maybe the movie is a comedy, so you show how funny people are. Maybe it’s a drama, so you show the reality of people’s lives. It’s just your duty to be the voice of people who have no voice.”
Besa’s exceptional performance in “Haraka”, which premiered at RSIF in the Middle East and North Africa, has garnered widespread acclaim. In May he won Best Performance at Cannes for Un Certain Regard (shared with Vicky Cripps for “Courses”), and the previous month won the Red Sea Competition Best Actor in Jeddah.
Working closely with Nathan, who won Best Director at the Red Sea Competition, Bessa spent the best part of four months preparing for the role of Ali, who sells black market gasoline on the streets of Sidi Bouzid. When his father dies, Ali is not only burdened with his father’s debt, but he is also responsible for the well-being of his two sisters. Risking his life to buy gasoline at the border with Libya, he is nevertheless forced to pay most of his earnings in extortion payments to the police.
“We knew we had to find time to prepare, so we talked about the script and the character, and then I went to Tunisia for maybe three weeks,” says Bessa, who was born in Paris to Tunisian parents. “I isolated myself and started getting into the character. Then I spent two weeks at the hideout with the smugglers. I spent time with him, went to Libya, actually lived with him and then during the shoot I never stopped being Ali, because it was so hard for me to disconnect. He’s so special and so complex and he resonates with something so special, so, for me, it had to be done that way.
Inspired by the true story of Mohamed Bouzizi, whose self-immolation sparked Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution and the wider Arab Spring, the film offers no answers and certainly no healing. Ali’s existence is harsh and unsettling, although Besa’s performance is remarkably restrained for most of the film. He is often silent, or interacts with minimal use of words. When we first meet Ali, he is pouring petrol from one can to another and living a lonely life in an abandoned construction site.
Only Besa’s face gives a hint of the character’s inner desperation. When Ali reaches breaking point much later in the film, it is a powerful and uncomfortable scene to watch. Besa’s already contained anger erupts with a level of ferocity that is unsettling.
“Mentally, it was tough,” admits Besa. “You put yourself out there and you go wherever curiosity takes you. And characters like Ali, they’re always with you. Because it’s troubling. Maybe it’s troubling because This is how the world works. Whatever happens to Ali every day is happening somewhere and it is a burden on each one of us to accept it. Because as much as we live our lives, we are all connected. So it’s hard to accept and it’s heartbreaking and sometimes it’s frustrating. But it’s the truth.”
A self-taught actor, Besa was the film’s sole representative at the Red Sea International Film Festival, taking interviews with patience and humility and attending two screenings of the film. She was also named among Screen Daily’s Arab Stars of Tomorrow, along with Moroccan writer and director Sofia Alaoui and Lebanese Dania Badir.
Bessa’s success becomes even more remarkable when you consider its past history. While working as a fisherman in the south of France he got his acting break in Algerian director Sofía Jama’s “Les Bienheureux”.
“It’s not that easy, you know,” he says. “I wanted to be a football player, it didn’t work out. I studied law, I didn’t like it. Then I started working. I was fond of cinema and I tried to get into business, but it was too It was complicated, so I stopped trying and started working as a real estate agent. You earn your living and then suddenly you get an opportunity. For me, that opportunity was a Sophia Jama film.
A friend of Bessa told her that there was a casting call for “Les Bienheureux”, so she sent a tape and eventually met the director in Paris. He hasn’t looked back since then.
“There’s a set path for most people. But a lot of stories don’t follow a set path. If you’re passionate about something and you don’t really listen to what everyone tells you to do and You just do what you want to do, then your road becomes strange and narrow and people say, ‘Oh, what a journey.’ But I think everyone’s journey would be strange if they just followed their heart. Listen. If you do what you love and what inspires you, your path becomes something special.
She starred in “Mosul,” directed by Matthew Michael Carnahan, which followed an Iraqi police unit during the fight to liberate the city from ISIS, and will soon appear alongside Chris Hemsworth in Netflix’s “Extraction 2” alongside Yaz Kahn. Will reprise his role as Roop. , She is also set to star in Tunisian-Canadian film director Meriam Jobour’s “Motherhood”, which is slated to release this year.
“The clear idea is to always follow my instincts,” Bessa says of the directors she works with. “This is how I went through life, how I grew up and why I am where I am now. I follow my instincts. Good story, good director, whatever you call it. I don’t go by names, I don’t go by publicity, I go by feel. If people inspire me, I will work with them. If I think we can do something good together, I will do that. If I don’t feel it, I don’t do it, you know? Even if you fail, when you choose something yourself it doesn’t feel like a failure, it just feels like your life. When you listen to others and fail, you have regret, and I hate regret.”
What will happen next? More movies, definitely. But maybe directing one day?
“Sure, why not?” He answers. “Not now, but maybe in the future. It’s a question of stories. It’s not a question of doing things because you have to tick boxes. Maybe I’ll build a brand, maybe I’ll do something else. Maybe I’ll edit books. I don’t know what I’ll do. It’s what drives me. That’s how I work. I listen to stories, I listen to people, so if I have an idea or if I meet someone who Whoever offers me a story that I like and am comfortable with, I’ll do it. It’s a question of people and the right time, the right time – the right thing.