PortraitAfter Ariane Mnouchkine’s Théâtre du Soleil and season 8 of the series “Homeland”, the actor, born in Afghanistan, plays an Iranian migrant in “They are alive”, by Jérémie Elkaïm. He shares the bill with Marina Foïs, in a sensual role.
They are brown, almost black, distinctly split and overhung by short, straight eyebrows. And when the lights come back on at the end of the movie They are alive, it is the eyes of Seear Kohi that we retain. By playing an Iranian refugee on his way to London, who finds himself stuck in the “jungle” of Calais, the Franco-Afghan actor enters French cinema through the front door. they are alive is written and directed by Jérémie Elkaïm, whom we knew as an actor (at Maïwenn, Catherine Corsini or Gilles Marchand), co-director (The Queen of Apples Where War is declared, with Valérie Donzelli) and more recently screenwriter (Soft song, by Lucie Borleteau).
At the origin of the project, the actress Marina Foïs, who had discovered the autobiographical story of Béatrice Huret and Catherine Siguret Calais my love (Kero editions, 2017). The story of Béatrice, mother of a teenager, recently bereaved policewoman, with strong right-wing political opinions, who sees her life turned upside down when she crosses paths with Mokhtar, a “migrant” who upsets her.
Jérémie Elkaïm quickly agrees to adapt it to the cinema but, once the script has been written (with his co-screenwriter Gilles Marchand), it remains to find the actor who will play Mokhtar. “A hell of a deal” summarizes the filmmaker. With his casting director, Jérémie Elkaïm auditions a number of actors who try out with Marina Foïs, the main actress. Two weeks from the first clap, “there was still no evidence”, he summarizes. Until he came across Seear Kohi. And most importantly, his eyes…
Impressive polyglot
On that January day, in the Parisian offices of the film distributor, Seear Kohi planted that famous gaze on us where curiosity mixed with a touch of amusement. In the film, his character does not speak French. He communicates with Béatrice on his cell phone, using a translation application. It is paradoxically this constraint that allows the blossoming of intimacy between two characters braced on their pain. Because it is through his eyes that the actor communicates. Through his eyes he absorbs this new world and expresses his emotions – his desire for this woman, his fear, his strength.
Like his character, Seear Kohi is a man of few words. He is, however, an impressive polyglot. Born thirty-three years ago in Balkh, in northern Afghanistan, he spent his early years in the big city of Mazar-e Sharif. The future actor has four brothers and a sister, a father who works at the UN. When he was 7 years old, the war pushed his family to exodus for the first time. Direction Kabul, first, then Pakistan. At home, he speaks Dari and Pashto. In high school, he studied in Persian and learned English.
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