Advanced search

Hafsia Herzi , born in Manosque, is a French actress and director. She grew up in Marseille.

Hafsia Herzi, of Tunisian origin by her father and Algerian by her mother, is the youngest of a family of four children (two brothers and a sister, Dalila).

In 2019, she released her first feature film as a director, You deserve a love , followed by Bonne Mère two years later.

Hafsia Herzi was only 13 years old when she landed a role, albeit a minor one, in Notes sur le rire, a TV movie for France 3 adapted from the novel by Marcel Pagnol. She followed this up with a few extra roles, and auditioned for the series Plus belle la vie and Sous le soleil; trials at the end of which she was not selected.

It was in 2005 that her luck changed for the young actress: her meeting with Abdellatif Kechiche proved decisive, as he offered her the lead role in La Graine et le mulet, in which she brilliantly and sincerely played the character of Rym. A first try, a master stroke: Hafsia Herzi won the Marcello Mastroianni Prize at the 64th Venice Film Festival in 2007, and the César for the Best Female Hopeful (meilleur espoir féminin) in early 2008.

Having never taken acting classes, she left Marseille and moved to Paris, where she enrolled in law at the university, took acting classes at the conservatory and even took diction classes to soften her Mediterranean accent. She decided to devote herself exclusively to the cinema, and quickly obtained the main roles in Française and L'Aube du monde, for which she learned Iraqi. In 2009, she plays under the direction of Francis Huster in Un homme et son chien, alongside Jean-Paul Belmondo before sharing the star with Jacques Dutronc for the fourth film of Xavier De Choudens: Joseph et la fille.

The year 2011 seems to be the year of consecration for the young actress because we find it in the poster of four films and not least: Jimmy Rivière's Teddy Lussi-Modeste, Le Chat du rabbin where she lends himself to the exercise of dubbing, L' Apollonide - souvenirs de la maison - close de Bertrand Bonello et La Source des femmes by Radu Mihaileanu, alongside the much sought after Leïla Bekhti. In Hiam Abbass' Héritage, the actress plays the rebellious Hajar, the youngest daughter of the Arab family at the center of the film.

More and more present on the screens, Hafsia Herzi multiplies projects and her roles gain importance, like her performances in Fugues marocaines, Le Sac de farine, Certifiée halal or Sex Doll. She also collaborates again with Abdellatif Kechiche on the two controversial Mektoub, my love. The actress also tastes the joys of the thriller via Persona non grata by Roschdy Zem, in which she gives the line to Nicolas Duvauchelle and Raphael Personnaz.

In 2019, the actress directs her first feature film, Tu mérites un amour, in which she also plays the lead role.

French novelist Jean Giono was born in a small town in the French Alps in 1895. His grandfather was an officer in the French army who took part in the brutal French campaign against the Spanish guerrillas, then turned against his government, was tried and sentenced to death and escaped by hiding in the mountains, where Jean was later born. Giono dropped out of school at 16 years of age; his father, who had married and fathered children late in his life, was old and ill, and Jean had to work to support the family. He joined the army in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I, fought at the battle of Verdun--one of the bloodiest in history--and left the army at war's end. He began writing soon afterwards, and in 1921 his poem "Sous le Pied Chaud du Soleil" was published in a Marseilles journal, and in 1924 it was published as a book. Four years later his short story "Champs" was published, and over the next few years several of his novels were published (his 1931 novel "Lovers Are Never Losers" won the Prix Brentano prize). His experiences during World War I apparently turned him into a pacifist, and in 1934 he joined a French political organization to fight what he saw as the march towards war, and especially fascism, in France; in 1939, after France had declared war on Germany, he was arrested by the French government for urging the populace to oppose the war and refuse to fight in it. He died in his native Manosque, France, in 1970.

Pierre Magnan was born on 19 September 1922 in Manosque, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France. He was a writer, known for La maison assassinée (1988), Commissaire Laviolette (2006) and Le secret des Andrônes (1982). He died on 28 April 2012 in Voiron, Isère, France.

Grégory Basso was born on 20 April 1974 in Manosque, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France. He is an actor, known for Metal Hurlant Chronicles (2012), Sous le soleil (1996) and Wond'ring Eyes (2014).

Hervé Ribatto was born on 25 June 1973 in Manosque, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France. He is known for Killers (2010), Paris, Je T'aime (2006) and The Intouchables (2011). He was married to Rosanne Ribatto. He died on 23 April 2021 in Pouant, Vienne, France.