Germany’s most admired actor on a feminist mission: Elyas M’Barek plays himself in the film “Liebesdings”. A conversation about one’s own sexism experiences on the set and the advantages of finally being 40.
Interviewed by
Bernhard Bloechl
He played the casual teacher in the “Fack ju Göhte” trilogy, the young lawyer in the “Collini case” and again and again Sonnyboys. His hit list is long, and Elyas M’Barek has long been one of the country’s best-known actors. In his new feature film, the man from Munich slips into the role of his life when he plays Germany’s biggest movie star. Marvin Bosch, that’s the name of the fictional main character in “Liebesdings”, has to deal with the consequences of a “pimmelgate”, endure the snappy questions of a tabloid journalist (Alexandra Maria Lara), and then the heartthrob stumbles into a feminist off-theatre, where he ends up in a huge plush vulva while on drugs. Anika Decker’s comedy, which wants a lot and can do a lot, wouldn’t be called what it’s called if the plot didn’t also include a romance for the actor looking for meaning (an enrichment: Lucie Heinze). Although M’Barek is rushing from one red carpet to the next these days and the boundaries between reality and film are becoming increasingly blurred, the 40-year-old seems fresh, clear and in a good mood when we talk to him in the Bayerischer Hof.