14.4. This is the title of the short film in which Ahmed Younoussi plays himself. The film tells his story, that of a 9-year-old boy who traveled from Morocco to Spain under a truck. The actor who was chosen for this role no longer showed up and Ahmed had the chance of his life. The director Sergio Peris-Mencheta, surprised by the young man’s innate talent as an actor, decided to make a play about Ahmed’s life.
This is how the Moroccan, on the director’s recommendation, tells his story to the actor Juan Diego Botto. “I sat down with Ahmed, he told me his life and I started writing and we arrived at this story, which is my text, but it is Sergio’s vision and Ahmed’s life. The three parts are essential,” Diego confides to The Spanishspecifying that “the piece is written with irony and humor”, as requested by Ahmed who did not want to appear “pitiful”.
Read: A former Moroccan miner, main actor in a short film on the situation of migrants in Spain
Ahmed left Tangier in Morocco for Spain under a truck. Once in the Iberian Peninsula, he was placed in a juvenile center. There he had the chance to learn Spanish and go to school. Very intelligent, he got good grades. Today, the young man has started a family and earns his living as an actor. A job that he never imagined he would do when he was in Morocco.
The play, inspired by Ahmed’s true story, addresses the issue of immigration in a unique way. “The best way to understand certain phenomena is not to dehumanize them, not to see them as mythological monsters who come to attack our children and disturb our social peace. Ahmed’s story can help some viewers see things from a different perspective,” Botto comments.
