Samira Sedira

Too rare on our screens, whether big or small, Samira Sedira is more acclaimed as a novelist, playwright and theater performer. Born in Annaba (Algeria) on 29 January 1964, Samira was one of nine siblings. She was only three months old when her parents emigrated to La Seyne-sur-Mer, in the South of France. Chabane, her father, found work as an arc welder at the local shipyards while her mother took care of her numerous children. As for Samira, she proved a good pupil as well as a determined girl, who struggled hard to be allowed to follow a general program in high school rather than a professional one like most immigrants did at the time. She was studying literature at the Aix-en-Provence University when she got to know its theater leader and, willing to fight the boredom she felt there, happily joined the college company. A friend having told her about the Saint-Etienne drama school, she took its entrance exam and passed it. From then on, Samira became very active on the boards, playing a wide range of roles, including men and a... cockroach (you will have recognized Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis') , the latter hidden under a sheet ! An amazing experience, like that of her embodiment of Launcelot Gobbo, the fool of Shakespeare's 'Merchant of Venice'. The performer also has a passion for Greek tragedies, their pure and lofty language and their passionate characters. After two decades of good and loyal services to the theater, roles unfortunately started to dwindle. So much so that in 2008, the devoted actress found out to her dismay that she had lost entitlement to unemployment benefits. The way Samira reacted to that blow of destiny is as surprising as worthy of respect. Married to a teacher and the mother of a young child, she was determined to go on sharing the household expenses and, accordingly, sought a job. With no college graduation she could not expect a trade in keeping with her professional aspirations which is why she became a... cleaning lady; a hard, depressing, unskilled trade. Overcoming her disappointment and bitterness, Samira Sedira gallantly carried out the task for three years. Intrinsically humiliating, the experience was also singular and fruitful in that it helped her to better understand the fate she had escaped thirty years before. And served as the basis for her first novel, 'L'Odeur des planches'. The book got good reviews and sold well. It was even adapted into a play, which marked the return to the theater of Sandrine Bonnaire, no less. In fact, from the worst, the best had been born. Two more novels, "Majda en août" and "La Faute à Saddam", followed, which were well received too.. And oddly enough, role offers were back. Success is the best revenge, as they say. The situation would be ideal only if Samira Sedira's presence in films was more obvious. But her filmography pales in comparison with her theatrography. Not that Samira overlooks her film and television career, quite the contrary. The problem actually stems from the French producers and filmmakers' lack of imagination. The thespian is from the Maghreb and a woman of the Maghreb can only be the mother of a drug dealer or else a... cleaning lady (!) . Her credits nevertheless include two distinguished titles, Luc Besson's farcical crime movie 'Malavita', starring Robert DeNiro, and "La Marche", a fine feelgood movie joyfully branding racism. But Samira Sedira hopes for something better in this field. She is quite right : she deserves better as a film performer. (from an unpublished interview)