Tahar Rahim Filmography
After his breakout in Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet, Tahar Rahim got typecast for Muslim gangster roles and other unoriginal, even cliched parts. But his determination to accept only challenging projects with directors who had a vision paid off.
Now he’s the star of Netflix’s new limited series The Serpent as 1970s French serial killer Charles Sobhraj, and Jodie Foster’s upcoming historical drama The Mauritanian as Gitmo detainee Mohamedou Ould Slahi. We caught up with him via Zoom to talk about his movie obsessions and what it takes to inhabit such dramatically different characters.
A Prophet (2009)
One of the year’s most acclaimed French films, A Prophet follows Malik El Djebena, a young Muslim from a family of thieves who falls in with a Corsican prison gang and rises up the ranks of its power structure. Audiard’s film is both a character study and a gripping crime thriller, and Rahim’s performance as the young gangster is nothing short of remarkable.
Rahim’s ability to elicit emotion from the smallest of gestures helps to make A Prophet more than just another prison movie—it’s an examination of identity, the clash between cultural heritage and the pressures to conform. And while the movie may occasionally lapse into genre conventions—there is a moment in which Malik’s father, played by Romain Duris, encourages him to follow his mother into the shady fringes of real estate—it never settles for mere exploitation or gratuitous violence.
Stephane Fontaine’s involving cinematography earned him a second Cesar award and an Oscar nomination, and Alexandre Desplat’s music contributes to the film’s overall feeling of depth and restraint. Like the best work from Bresson or Scorsese, A Prophet is both a portrait of a man and a story about criminality—but it’s also an existentialist examination of whether humans control their own fate or are simply players in a predetermined narrative.
The Eagle (2011)
The Eagle is a look movie based on Rosemary Sutcliff’s novel. It reunites director Kevin Macdonald (One Day in September) with his The Last King of Scotland co-writer, Jeremy Brock. It stars Channing Tatum as Marcus Flavius Aquila, who embarks on a dangerous quest to retrieve the eagle standard of his father’s lost legion in 2nd-century Britain. The cast also includes BAFTA nominee Jamie Bell (Hallam Foe, Dear John) as Esca.
The story begins ten years after the Ninth Legion mysteriously vanished from northern England and Brittany. Unlike most Roman movies that fail to accurately portray the tactical genius of ancient armies, The Eagle is surprisingly accurate and exciting, with battle scenes that pulsate with a visceral energy.
Despite the fact that The Eagle is a bit of an anti-Gladiator, it has its charms. It is a smaller movie, with more realistic locales and characters that do not engage in superstar posturing or splatter their enemies with blood at every opportunity. It also promotes honor and mercy over revenge.
Rahim’s breakout role came in 2009’s A Prophet, which earned him Cesar Awards for Best Actor and Most Promising Actor. He has since starred as FBI agent Ali Soufan in The Looming Tower and Judas in Mary Magdalene, both of which won critical acclaim. He is slated to play Mohamedou Ould Salahi in The Mauritanian (2021). Rahim has a strong French accent and embodies his character with a raw and rugged intensity that makes him appear larger than life on screen.
The Serpent (2019)
The Serpent is a gripping true-crime series that depicts the crimes of Charles Sobhraj, the French serial killer nicknamed “The Serpent” or “The Bikini Killer”. The eight-episode series was commissioned by BBC One and Netflix. The show traces Sobhraj’s crimes along the “hippie trail” in India, Nepal and Thailand. The series stars Tahar Rahim as Sobhraj, Jenna Coleman as his devoted accomplice and lover Marie-Andrée Leclerc and Billy Howle as Herman Knippenberg, a Dutch diplomat hunting down Sobhraj.
Getting into character for the role of Sobhraj required an intense transformation. During his interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Rahim talked about how far he went to embody the murderer, from not talking to his co-stars during the shoot to creating a uneasy mood on set to losing 10 kilograms in a matter of weeks.
Also starring Alice Englert (Top of the Lake), Mathilde Warnier (The Widow), Sahajak Boonthanakit (Only God Forgives), Fabien Frankel (Last Christmas), Armand Rosbak (De Slet van 6 vwo) and screen newcomer Amesh Edireweera, The Serpent is a globetrotting nailbiter that will keep you on the edge of your seat through its entirety. The cast’s brilliant acting, great directing and stunning cinematography make it a riveting watch. This is a must-watch for all fans of crime thrillers and true-crime dramas! So be sure to catch the latest episode of The Serpent on BBC One tonight!
The Mauritanian (2021)
After a breakout lead performance in the gritty crime drama A Prophet, Tahar Rahim proved himself as an actor with true crossover appeal. His ability to handle both the most intense and frightening scenes depicting interrogation techniques as well as those surprisingly light-hearted one-liners in The Mauritanian shows off his range and elevates what could’ve been a sluggish legal thriller into a powerful film.
The film’s story follows the plight of Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Rahim), a Mauritanian citizen who was taken into custody in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and accused of helping and recruiting the hijackers who flew the planes into the World Trade Center. After years of imprisonment without charge or trial, Slahi gains allies in the form of defense attorney Nancy Hollander (Jodie Foster) and her associate Teri Duncan (Shailene Woodley). Together, they struggle to secure his release despite countless obstacles, including a military prosecutor named Lt. Col Stuart Couch (Benedict Cumberbatch).
The script by M.B. Traven, Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani tries to make the film more interesting by playing with various aspect ratios (recreating the early interrogation scenes in 4:3 and then switching to widescreen for present day proceedings) and adding layers of drama with flashback scenes and a climactic reenactment of Slahi’s torture. But it never fully coalesces into a white knuckle thriller or a gripping political drama. And despite the performances by Jodie Foster, Tahar Rahim and the rest of the cast, the movie feels too familiar.
