Ahmed Benaissa

Ahmed Benaïssa in Arabic ???? ?? ???? born March 2 1944 in Algiers and died May 20 2022 in Cannes is a FrancoAlgerian actor As a child Ahmed Benaïssa was fascinated by the religious festivals of Nédroma where he spent his summer holidays and at the age of 9 in Mazouna he played in front of another kids 95mm camera for 1mn30 The magic of the show leads him to make his own cinema with cardboard He joined his father in Paris who had retreated there after his release following independence activities in Algeria In Oise at the college boarding school he became a designated projectionist In 196061 he was in Lyon aged 17 and frequented the local artistic scene at the Théâtre de la Cité There he attended the Al Capone show directed by Planchon Its dazzling When Algeria gained independence in 1962 the Lyon consulate included him in an animation course for compatriots from Algeria then returned to Algeria to Sidi Bel Abbès where he entered the conservatory municipal then led by Saïm El Hadj In July 1964 on a family visit to Algiers he convinced Bénaïssa Boudia and Mustapha Kateb to join a training course for conservatory graduates at the initiative of the TNA Algerian National Theater After six months of training he was ranked first in each discipline Its first distribution was under the leadership of Alloula in 196667 in Monnaies DOr It will be breathtaking there The TNA sent him to an advanced training course in France then he moved on to the International Theater Institute In 1968 he was in the Perennetti and Jean Marie Serreau troupe touring across Europe Bulimic he will do café theater and cinema In 1971 he returned to Algeria and discovered a theater in decline emptied of its substance and devoted to propaganda He distanced himself after three years on stage and headed towards cinema then in full development in Algeria For ten years he appeared on the big and small screens In 1985 he returned to the theater then in a context of text crisis like the country at that time He became a director first of a childrens theater with a superb Kalila or Dimna In 1996 he directed the Sidi Bel Abbès Theater then in a lethargic situation since Kateb Yacine was no longer there He injects new blood with talented young local artists Abbar Azzedine Yahia Benamar Niddal el Mellouhi and others He will return to TNA His most beautiful creation was El Maghara El Mounfajira in 2007 based on La Grotte Éclatée by Yamina Méchakra adapted by Haïder Benhassine Over two decades he put on shows where he trained comedians in the acting profession In the cinema in France and in Europe we continue to call on Ahmed for his mouth his precision and his talent On May 20 2022 at 430 am Ahmed Benaïssa died at the age of 78 in full promotion of the film Goutte dor at the 2022 Cannes festival of a pulmonary embolism in his sleep in a hospital in Cannes where he had been evacuated after feeling unwell He is buried in the ElAlia cemetery in Algiers