1998, France won the World Cup thanks to two helmet shots from Zinedine Zidane in the Brazil team’s sideboard. Meanwhile, France discovers another icon: Daniel Morales.
In life, Daniel is a taxi driver in Marseille, his eyes are piercing, blue, his voice is hoarse, his words are precise and his gaze is mischievous. Daniel is Samy Naceri, a hitherto little-known actor who, thanks to the madness around the film “Taxi” produced by Luc Besson, will become an essential star.
In less than ten years, Naceri has completed major projects such as “Le Petit Poucet”, “Nid de gêpes”, “La Mentale” and “Indigènes” for which he won the prize for best actor at the Cannes Film Festival, a film which tells the life of four soldiers of the French Army of the Liberation, three Algerian riflemen and a Moroccan goumier.
A major work by Rachid Bouchareb, “Indigènes” calls out Jacques Chirac, President of the Republic, on the fate of the “Indigènes”, these soldiers who came to liberate France and, then, left behind, without a pension, without veteran status fighter, without recognition. In oblivion and misery.
Fiction can also be used for that. Raise awareness. Tell stories that textbooks touch on.
A little bit of him in character
After “Indigènes”, Samy Naceri returns to an activist role by playing Marwann in “Mémoires à vive” on France 3. In this TV film by Julie Gali, with Stéphane Freiss and Meena Rayann, the action of which takes place entirely in Valbonne (the filming took place two years ago, read elsewhere), a deputy mayor is expected to inaugurate a commemorative plaque in homage to the harkis, but his body is found, floating in a bath of blood, in the swimming pool of his villa …
On the occasion of the National Day of Tribute to the Harkis which has been held since 2021, every year, on September 25, France Télévisions offers this new fiction which highlights, through a thriller and strong characters, the resonance today today of the situation of the harkis who fought alongside the French army during the Algerian war, from 1954 to 1962.
Samy Naceri, of Algerian origin, grew up in the 1960s and 70s in Paris and its suburbs. A time when the repatriation of the harkis to France took place in abominable conditions.
Hunted and massacred in Algeria, those who had chosen to fight alongside the French army in their country arrived in France like plague victims, parked in camps or forestry hamlets (the Var and the Alpes-Maritimes in numbered around fifteen).
The character of Marwann has a bit of Samy Naceri in him. “I knew there was something strong to play when I received the script, remembers the actor. I experienced this time when you had to change your first name when you arrived in France, to better integrate, to find a place.”.
Born Saïd Naceri, the young boy who dreams of playing opposite Lino Ventura and Jean-Paul Belmondo, was first called Michel and Alain on his first CV papers before choosing Samy. With a “Y”.
Somehow, the character of Marwann was obvious to Naceri. “The text spoke to me, what he had gone through, his past. When I did my first castings, I was often asked my origin, where I came from. I always played on instinct, on improvisation and I was able to bring that to Marwann, thanks to the director Julie Gali who has a real sensitivity. I recognized myself in this character, he hates lies, I am the same even if it sometimes played tricks on me. “
Flayed alive, bloody, Samy Naceri is a fragile and extremely strong man at the same time. Whole, probably too much, he had to manage, without being prepared, the “Taxi” madness from one day to the next.
“I couldn’t go out on the street anymore”he rewinds. Despite everything, after years of doubt, he never lost the desire to act, well supported by his partner who supports him, including on the set in Valbonne.
“There is suffering on both sides”
“Living Memories” has a special meaning for Naceri. “The Algerian war is a taboo subject in France, there is suffering on both sides. We are talking about a civil war and we have not really learned lessons from the fate of the African fighters of 1939-45, the France is struggling to take care of those who fought for her…”
Proud of his performance – “I lived up to the text, the character, I gave everything” – Samy Naceri hopes that this film will have an educational value.
“I still have plenty of relatives who don’t know what a Harki is. Myself, before filming ‘Indigènes’, I had little idea about the fate of African soldiers and their importance in the liberation of France. It’s important to take responsibility for your past, people need to know who defended France, even more so today.”
The one who realized his dream of playing opposite Jean-Paul Belmondo in “L’Aîné des Ferchaux” in 2001 remains a unique CV in French cinema. Endearing, moving, Samy Naceri remains indomitable. And, when he wants to be, a hell of an actor.
“Mémoires à vive”, this Wednesday at 9:05 p.m., on France 3.
