Moroccan Actor Mohamed Bastaoui

Born in 1954 in Khouribga, Morocco, Mohamed bastaoui decided, when he was twenty years old, like many young men, to go to Italy where he took several jobs. five years later, he came back to his country and started an acting career by performing in plays for children broadcasted on television, and then with "Le Théâtre d'aujourd'hui" company, alongside great Moroccan artist Touria Jabrane. The company went on tours several times, in Morocco and abroad, producing plays acknowledged as masterpieces of the national heritage.

After "Le Théâtre d'aujourd'hui", Mohamed Bastaoui founded "Le Théâtre du Soleil" company with many other artists, including actor Mohamed Khouyi, with whom he played many parts for the stage, cinema and television.

Mohamed Bastaoui's remarkable stage presence, acknowledged by the critics and the audience alike, also attracted the attention of film directors. Thus the actor started a film career, notably with Mohammed Abbazi in the feature film Les Trésors de L'Atlas (1997). He then played opposite Hassan Essakali in Adieu Forain (1998) by Daoud Aoulad Syad, a film that won the Best First Film Award at the Arab Film Festival in Paris. Mohamed Bastaoui's performance in the film also earned him a nomination for the Best Actor Award in that festival, a confirmation that he had now entered the big league (the award finally went to great Egyptian actor Ahmed Zaki)

Mohamed Bastaoui's cinema career started right when the Moroccan film production engaged in unceasing progress, especially in the early 2000s. Indeed, the actor worked with great Moroccan directors like Saad Chraibi in Thirst (2000) and Jawhara (2003), Kamal Kamal in Tayf Nizar (2001), Mohammed Ismail in Et Après (2002), and later by Faouzi Bensaidi in A Thousand Months (2003) - shown at the Festival de Cannes in the "Un certain regard" section - and WWW: What a Wonderful World" (2006). He was also directed by Daoud Aoulad Syad in Tarfaya (2004) and Waiting for Pasolini (2007), Mohammed El Asli in "In Casablanca Angels Don't Fly" (2006) and recently in "Les Mains rudes" (2010), as well as Farida Bourquia in Two Women on the Road (2007) and Jilali Ferhati in At Dawn (2009). He has also given much-awaited performances in upcoming L'Enfant cheikh by Hamid Bennani and Sotto voce by Kamal Kamal.

Besides his presence in Moroccan cinema, Mohamed Bastaoui has played in several foreign films shot in Morocco. He also impresses the Morocaan art scene with his perfromances in television films that meet with much critical and public success.

In 2000, Mohamed Bastaoui was honoured by the Khouribga African Film Festival, the oldest film festival in Morocco and one of the greatest events dedicated to African cinema.