Adam Bessa

Adam Bessa (born 1992) is a French-Tunisian actor,[2][3] known for his roles in French and Hollywood productions such as Reda in The Blessed (2017), Kawa in Mosul (2019), soldier Yaz Kahn in Extraction (2020) and its 2023 sequel, and Abbas Naziri in the Amazon Prime Video series Hanna. For his performance in Harka (2022), he won the Un Certain Regard Award for Best Performance at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

Adam Bessa
Bessa at the César Awards Revelations dinner in 2018
Born1992 (age 30–31)
Grasse, Alpes-Maritimes, France[1]
Nationality
  • French
  • Tunisian
OccupationActor
Years active2010–present

Biography

Bessa was born in Grasse,[1] France in 1992,[2] to an Italian-Tunisian mother and a Tunisian father.[4] Bessa speaks French, Arabic, English and Italian.[5]

Bessa decided to quit law school and pursue his long-standing passion for cinema. He bought a few books on acting and started to teach himself.[2] He studied at Jean Périmony,[6] a theatre school in Paris from 2011 to 2012,[5] but he didn't like the experience.[7] What he proposed in the exercises was too "cinematic", and he was told that he showed too little and wasn't expressive enough, so he quit and went back to Marseille to work as a real estate agent and then as a fishmonger, his other passion.[7] Some time later, a friend asked him to star in a short film.[7] He made his film debut in 2010 in Le Rapport Homme Femme, directed by Olivier André.[5] In 2013, he appeared in Les Mouettes by Claire Fontecave.[8] In 2015, he played Jason in the romantic thriller Of Sound Mind, directed by Simon G. Mueller.[9]

In 2017, he starred as Reda in Sofia Djama's The Blessed. For his performance in the film, he was one of the young actors shortlisted to compete for the César Award for Most Promising Actor, but he did not get the nomination.[10] Bessa kept working as a fishmonger in Marseille even after starring in The Blessed because he did not want to settle in Paris, where he didn't feel good and was wasting away.[7] In 2019, he played police officer Kawa in the Arabic-language American war film Mosul, directed by Matthew Michael Carnahan and based on the 2016 Battle of Mosul.[11]

In 2020, he played mercenary Yaz Kahn in the American war film Extraction, directed by Sam Hargrave.[2] He reprised his role in the 2023 sequel, Extraction 2.[2] In 2021, he appeared as Abbas Naziri in 5 episodes of season 3 of the Amazon Prime Video series Hanna.[5]

In 2022, he starred in three films: Azuro directed by Matthieu Rozé;[5] Le Prix du passage directed by Thierry Binisti;[12] and the drama Harka directed by Lotfy Nathan, for which he won the Un Certain Regard Award for Best Performance at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival for his performance as Ali Hamdi,[13] and was named as one of the Revelations of 2022 and pre-selected to compete for the César Award for Most Promising Actor.[14]

Bessa will next star in Meryam Joobeur's Motherhood, a film about a mother and daughter in an isolated Tunisian village.[2][15]

Filmography

Feature films
Year Title Role Director
2010 Le Rapport Homme Femme Olivier André
2013 Les Mouettes Claire Fontecave
2015 Of Sound Mind Jason Simon G. Mueller
2017 The Blessed Reda Sofia Djama
2019 Mosul Kawa Matthew Michael Carnahan
2020 Extraction Yaz Kahn Sam Hargrave
2021 Haute Couture Abdel Sylvie Ohayon
2022 Azuro Kosta Matthieu Rozé
Harka Ali Hamdi Lotfy Nathan
Le Prix du passage Walid Thierry Binisti
2023 Extraction 2 Yaz Kahn Sam Hargrave
Motherhood Meryam Joobeur

Short films
Year Title Role Director
2014 La Stravaganza Louis Vanya Chokrollahi
2015 Elles s'appellent toutes Marie The musician James Down

Television
Year Title Role Notes
2011 Josephine, Guardian Angel Bilal Bouazid TV series; 1 episode
2020 Amours solitaires Simon Web-series, 1 episode
2021 Hanna Abbas Naziri TV series, season 3, 5 episodes

Theatre
Year Title Director Notes Ref.
2014César et RosalieAnne-Marie PhilippeThéâtre des déchargeurs[5]
2016Requiem Pour de FauxClaire Fontecave[5]

Awards and nominations
Year Award / Festival Category Work Result Ref(s)
2022 Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard Award for Best Performance Harka Won [13]
Saint-Jean-de-Luz Film Festival Best Male Performance Won [16]
Red Sea International Film Festival Best Actor Won [17]
2023 Lumières Award Most Promising Actor Nominated [18]
Paris Film Critics Association Best Young Actor Nominated [19]

References
  1. Duponchel, Marilou (4 November 2022). "La trajectoire tourmentée d'Adam Bessa, l'acteur lumineux de "Harka"". Les Inrockuptibles (in French).
  2. Aftab, Kaleem (5 December 2022). "Arab Stars of Tomorrow 2022: Adam Bessa, actor (Tunisia)". Screen Daily. Archived from the original on 5 December 2022.
  3. "Adam Bessa". Alternative Agency (in French). Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  4. "Adam Bessa, star of Harka, is building a diverse career". The Australian. 14 July 2022.
  5. "Adam Bessa". Africiné (in French). Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  6. Leroy, Joséphine (27 October 2022). "[LE NOUVEAU] Adam Bessa, intense révélation de « Harka »". Trois Couleurs (in French).
  7. Cheze, Thierry (5 November 2022). "Adam Bessa : « Harka m'a reconnecté à la Tunisie »". Première (in French).
  8. "30es Rencontres Cinématographiques de Cannes" (PDF). cannes-cinema.com (in French). 27 November 2017. p. 46.
  9. "Of Sound Mind". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  10. "Nekfeu présélectionné dans la catégorie "Meilleur espoir masculin" des César 2018". Radio France (in French). 15 November 2017.
  11. Marshall, Lee (4 September 2019). "'Mosul': Venice Review". Screen Daily.
  12. "Le Prix du passage". Film Francophone d’Angoulême. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
  13. "Adam Bessa awarded Best Performance Prize at Cannes' Un Certain Regard". Agence Tunis Afrique Presse. 28 May 2022.
  14. Leffler, Rebecca (17 November 2022). "France's Cesars reveals Revelations line-up of rising stars". Screen Daily.
  15. Lavallée, Eric (20 June 2022). "A Bond That Breaks: Meryam Joobeur's "Motherhood" Readying For Festival Launch in '23". Ioncinema.
  16. "Le Palmarès 2022". Festival International du Film de Saint-Jean-de-Luz (in French). Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  17. Ntim, Zac (8 December 2022). "Red Sea Film Festival Winners: 'Hanging Gardens' By Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji Takes Best Film Award". Deadline Hollywood.
  18. Baronnet, Brigitte (15 December 2022). "Nominations Prix Lumières 2023 : La Nuit du 12 part en tête". AlloCiné (in French).
  19. "Nominations 2023 | Paris Film Critics Association". Paris Film Critics Association. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
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