He is “the master of all comics” for Gad Elmaleh. Abderrahim Tounsi, better known as “Abderraouf”, receives a tribute at the Festival this year in honor of a long career, well filled by the laughter of his audience.
And further recognition for Abderrahim Tounsi who, every time he leaves his home, is recognized, challenged, congratulated. The actor, born in 1936, made every Moroccan home laugh with his burlesque, simple and ridiculous character: Abderraouf. He knew how to embody it so well that he became his double, and many Moroccans only know him by that name. However, it all started badly: in detention.
Imprisoned by the colonial authorities in the early 1950s, the young Casablanca discovered a passion for theater. “Imprisoned resistance fighters had formed a theater troupe, which performed plays on the theme of nationalism,” he testified in the pages of the Moroccan weekly TelQuel. “They needed a young person to play the âaroubi (countryman). As I was there, they practically forced me to go on stage.”
It’s a revelation. Released from prison, the young Abderrahim Tounsi continues to play “Moroccan adaptations of Molière in cafés” with his former fellow prisoners. And then, one day, he has fun imitating, in front of the mirror, an old school friend, a true incarnation of stupidity. This is how Abderraouf was born, in 1967: nasal voice, red tarbouch screwed on his head, an unparalleled gift for turning his interlocutors into a fool and making the public laugh. Success came quickly, the shows were full, the cassettes of the sketches sold like hotcakes and he made people laugh even in Europe, via the Moroccan community abroad. Although he became rare between the end of the 90s and 2005, Abderraouf eventually reappeared, renewing himself through cinema, notably playing in two feature films by Nassim Abassi, My uncle and Majid.
The latter is also screened this Tuesday on the Jemaa el Fna square, in the presence of the actor.
