Moral Guidance from a TV Detective

Hichem Rostom is a familiar face from film and television – not just for Arab viewers, but also in the West through his roles in The English Patient and numerous BBC productions. An interview by Martina Sabra

​​ How important is the stage for you?

Hichem Rostom: I wasn't a great theatre fan as a child. I preferred to go to the movies round the corner, at least twice a week. My favourites were Westerns and detective films, but I liked comedies too. Back then I still dreamed of becoming a film star. But then I started acting on stage at high school and I realised: Hey, this is great fun! That passion grew and grew.

Now the stage is the most important for me. To my mind, an actor is first and foremost a stage actor. Of course you can't separate the two entirely, purely for economic reasons. But when it comes to artistic aspects, I think it's important to make a distinction between an acteur – someone who acts for television and cinema – and a comédien, a stage actor.

Tunisian theatre has a good international reputation, and it's very popular in Tunisia itself, more than in other North African countries. Why is this?

Rostom: I think one factor is the Tunisian state's cultural policy since independence. Culture has never been a private matter in Tunisia that everyone has to take care of for themselves; it's always been regarded as an essential public service, rather like healthcare.

​​ The other factor is our history, our vicinity to Europe. The many Italians who lived in 19th century Tunisia were very important for our theatre. They were the first to bring European theatre to Tunisia. And it was Italian architects who built the first theatres and operas here at the end of the 19th century. Later the French played a role too.

And were there influences from the Arab world? From Egypt, for example?

Rostom: The Egyptians were hugely important in spreading theatre culture in Tunisia. The first play performed in Arabic at the Tunis Théâtre Municipal in 1905 was Molière's The Miser (L'Avare). The cast had come especially from Cairo. Many young Tunisian writers and actors were inspired by these performances and started to emulate the Egyptians. By 1909 the first 100% Tunisian play was staged, performed in Tunisian dialect by Tunisian actors. But the Egyptian theatre ensembles remained popular right up to the 1940s.

When did modern Tunisian theatre have its beginnings?

Rostom: Modern Tunisian theatre emerged in the 1950s. Ali Ben Ayed was the key figure in its development. He had experience in England and other places, with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and he was the first person to bring Shakespeare to Tunisian stages. Ali Ben Ayed inspired a whole generation of young theatre people, including myself: my enthusiasm for theatre had a great deal to do with his modern versions of classics like Shakespeare's Hamlet and Camus' Caligula.

What effect did independence have?

Rostom: I think one thing that was very important, and which distinguishes us from the Middle East, was – and still is – the mentality of the cultural elites in Tunisia. They didn't believe in Arab nationalism; they were convinced we needed a cultural elite that was educated abroad. That was the reason why I studied in France, others in England, and some in Italy.

And all this means that my generation, the people behind the theatres in Tunisia today, look back on three different schools: the French, the Italian and the English school.

After independence in 1956, theatre ensembles literally mushroomed. Nowadays, children act at every primary school, that's just part of our culture. But we do have one problem: the young generation barely have access to the universal repertoire. There are hardly any decent Arabic translations of Brecht, Chekhov or other great dramatists, most texts are outdated or simply poorly translated. That means many young people only use the stage to express their personal problems and address everyday issues.

What can be done about this lack of adequate translations?

​​ Rostom: A national translation centre was set up in 2008, where significant works of world literature are translated into Arabic. We have professors who are absolutely capable of translating Shakespeare's plays into Arabic, but it's a long slow task and you have to work with the directors. It's not something you can do on the spur of the moment. What we're trying to do now is get funding from the ministry of culture to work with this national literary translation centre.

You've been playing a detective in a TV series for Tunisian television for a while now. Very few detective shows have been made in Arab countries up to now – why is that?

Rostom: I don't really know why, but it's not as if there'd never been any detective series on television before. Kojak and the German detective Derrick are great heroes in Tunisia. And way back in the early days of Tunisian TV in the 1970s, there was a weekly series called "Help us find the killer". There was a mystery case every week, and the viewers had to find out who the murderer was.

The series was a huge hit but it was taken off air because the police were unhappy with their portrayal. They were presumably afraid the series would damage their reputation. Not so many directors were prepared to put up with this criticism and in the end the series disappeared from our screens.

Do you want to pick up this tradition?

Rostom: Perhaps a little. The interesting thing is, we were only allowed to make the series with the permission of the Tunisian interior ministry. They wanted to make sure our detective didn't have a negative image that might damage the police's reputation.

Do you have a role model as a TV detective?

Rostom: "Derrick", the German television detective, is my great role model. I liked him a lot and I wanted to create a similar character. I went through the scripts with the scriptwriter and the director to create a Tunisian Derrick.

The detective is often just an excuse, a device that enables the audience to follow a story about society, someone who deals with social conflicts. A lot of the themes the shows tackle are family issues. You don't usually find out much about the detective. He's the one who scratches at the families' image, who brings out the dirty laundry, all the things that are wrong about society. It can be a little too didactic at times.

But that's what people want, they want to be able to understand things. I say to myself, goodness me, this is so old-fashioned, we don't tell stories to give people lessons on morality. But people want to know why we're telling them these stories, what the character's motives are.

Hichem Rostom, you're married to a French woman and have dual Tunisian and French nationality. Where do you call home?

Rostom: France has had a huge influence on me: I did my artistic training there, took my first steps as an actor and director, my best friends and my favourite bars are there. I go to Paris about four or five times a year now. That's where I go for intellectual refuelling, to live out my need for creativity and freedom.

In Tunisia I have my wife, my children, my grandchildren, all the old people in my family. I'm at home in Tunisia in the family sense, it's where my roots are. If I didn't have those roots I'd feel empty in Paris, but I also need the intellectual and creative energy I "recharge" in Paris.

Interview: Martina Sabra

© Qantara.de 2009

Translated from the German by Katy Derbyshire

Qantara.de

Iraqi Theatre
The Arab Answer to 'Godot'
An Iraqi-German cooperative project has staged the drama "Waiting for Rain" after Beckett's "Waiting for Godot". It shows Iraqi society in search of itself. Leonie Kircher spoke with the project's initiators

Iraqi Theater
Behind the Backdrop of Terror
How do you make theater during a war? What prospects does culture have when bombs and terrorist attacks threaten everyday life? Dorothea Marcus reports from the Iraqi Theater Week in Mülheim on the difficult working conditions of theater groups in Iraq

Interview with Juliano Mer Khamis
"Politically-Speaking, I Am Palestinian"
Juliano Mer Khamis is an Israeli actor and director. His father was a Palestinian, his mother a Jew. Igal Avidan spoke with him about political radicalism, the traumas of Palestinian youths, about his most recent film and his "Freedom Theatre" project