They made the Cannes Film Festival chuckle with laughter, where we wear very little hair in front of the screen, Benoît Magimel and Reda Kateb share the starring role inOmar the strawberry ofElias Belkeddar, presented in a midnight session, where they make the four hundred blows in Algiers. It must be said that the Omar of the title has become very unpopular in France where a twenty-year prison sentence awaits him if he tries to set foot there again.
“My character is there to watch over the grain and protect Omar, played by Reda, explains Benoît Magimel to 20 minutes. He wants her to agree to live in this country while her boyfriend only dreams of eating camembert, drinking good wine and going back to France. Omar is unable to keep quiet, multiplying nonsense that could get him locked up.
On the same wavelength
The actors are irresistible as small-time bandits as formidable as they are capricious. “We had a lot of fun breaking people in two,” jokes Reda Kateb. As I didn’t do many comedies, I felt like I was discovering new notes and playing the piano with four hands. “The many scenes of violence have a “cartoon” side that defuses them. And the palpable complicity between the two friends does the rest. “I felt that we had a common sensibility even if we didn’t have the same way of playing. We had the same approach,” says Benoît Magimel.
Reda Kateb is also full of praise for her partner. “I quickly sensed something upright, without a mask, in Benoît, which is not common among actors. The recognition between us was almost chemical as it was immediate. »
“Our characters are above all free men,” explains Benoît Magimel. When one chooses this type of life, one must expect a lot of suffering. But they are enjoyers, children but not puppets. »
But why the hell was Omar nicknamed “The Strawberry”. There are plenty of legends he tells himself, and plenty of rumors that others circulate, but you have to see the entire film to find out, says Reda Kateb. This will be possible next Wednesday in cinemas.