Films, family and the future of art

Actor Mohamed Khaie to Arabstoday Casablanca - Yousra Mostafa He started his career carefully in ascending steps, succeeding in personalising several roles, he is a professional actor who has adored acting since childhood and some of his best work includes, "Jenan Al Karma", (Grape Gardens), "Tarik Layalat" (Layalat Road) and "Reh El Bahr" (Sea Wind). We speak to renowned actor, Mohamed Khaie about his new projects and the situation of the Moroccan art recently. Arabstoday: You have played several roles from the man of power to a police officer, tribe leader and an impotent man, how do you select your roles? Mohamed Khaie: Sometimes luck plays a role in this field. But I like to read the script and then decide. I always perform my role in a very accurate way, I devote all my time to it and each has its details and deep feeling which need to be expressed in a different ways. Arabstoday: What was the closest role to your own character? Mohamed Khaie: There isn't a role close to me more than the other, as I like all roles I play. I try to make them suitable to my personality so I merge all components and secrets I see - this is the main role of the actor in any artistic work. Arabstoday: You have a lot of great experience and an array of accumulated works, how do you see the artistic arena nowadays? Mohamed Khaie: Actors, directors, technicians, and administrators are all very much aware that the artistic arena in Morocco is different from other places in the world. If we decided to compare ourselves to the world, we will find that Moroccan art is suffering miserably. We don’t have any laws that protect actors and the state is our producer - as it supports artistic work. Arabstoday: Who do you then feel is responsible for this situation? Mohamed Khaie: It’s a common responsibility between a group of administrations and directors. I feel sad when I see a director giving a role to someone who is a friend or a relative rather than a trained actor. This is not a healthy environment to create professional actors. But I think that the problems that face Moroccan actors can be solved, we have great qualifications to compete with others, our actors are very talented and we have a marvellous Tunisian nature. We need just logistic to improve our situation. I believe we can be leaders in cinema, drama, and in music. Turkish films are now invading the Arab market which is supporting its tourism - we should thus also play an important role in spreading our culture, heritage and history to others. We can attract other states through our artistic work. Now Moroccan films are well presented in international festivals and we are improving our production. We just need to encourage investment in this field in order to support cinema industry; the Moroccan state can't be the only producer, as cinema needs huge production and support. Arabstoday: Have you always wanted to be an actor? Mohamed Khaie: I’ve adored the art since I was a child, watching Egyptian and Jordanian cinema and drama in addition to Moroccan sketches and plays, step by step I became part of the art. I began to think of being an actor and started working when I was ten years old in primary school. I also participated in youth house for young talented actors. Arabstoday: Does your family support you? Mohamed Khaie: I owe a lot of my success to my wife; she has supported me a lot to develop myself and helped create a calm atmosphere to concentrate at work. She is an understanding individual. Also my daughters, Shimaa and Rania, have been very supportive and are proud of their father. Arabstoday: What do you have planned for the future? Mohamed Khaie: I've just finished a television drama directed by Melod Al Hobayshi entitled "Ryah El Torab" (Sand wind) . I've also been working on the film, "Terrorism" (Erhab) for the author and director Hisham Ain El Hayah, and finally "Sotofotshy" (The Soft Voice) directed by Kamal Kamal, which we are still working on.