Abdelhalim Rais

Biography

Abdelhalim Rais (birth name Boualem Raïs) is an Algerian actor and comedian, born January 4, 1924 in the casbah of Algiers and died November 8, 1979. Boualem Raïs, chose the pseudonym "Abdelhalim" after the name of Abdelhalim Hafid whom he adored so much, grew up alongside the mujahideen and worked as a postman, public writer and was also employed in an electricity and gas company. However, what fascinated him was song, music and comedy. From time to time, he went to the Mahieddine-Bachtarzi rehearsal room (located rue du Lézard in Algiers) where he began to meet and know the artists. At the beginning of his career, when he was only twenty years old, he began writing ditties and participating in theatrical plays. At this time in 1934 he wrote the play "El Yatime" (the orphan) and joined the troupe El Hilal El Djazairi of which he was a founding member. In 1946, he left for Morocco where he played in two films "Chadad El Adil" alongside Djeloul Bach Djarah and Maarouf with Mohamed Touri. Back in Algiers, he joined the Algerian Radio team and began preparing programs on police theater. In 1947, Mahieddine Bachtarzi, who initiated the Arab theater season at the former Algiers Opera (currently the National Theater), presented the play "Monserrat" with Mustapha Kateb. The latter was presented for the first time to the Algerian public by the MTLD troupe (of which Raïs was a member) in November 1949 and, let us emphasize, in the presence of the French author Emmanuel Roblès. Raïs will subsequently play in the play "Chemchoum El Djazair" by Mohamed Ouadah, "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme" by Molière... He then writes several plays including "Hya El Hayat" (C'est La Vie) and "Bin Narain" (Entre Deux Feux) at a time when theater had a good relationship with the National Movement. In 1950, the MTLD troupe had participated in several festivals in communist countries (Berlin in 1952, Budapest in 1953, Warsaw 1955...). In 1953, Raïs wrote, "Sidi El Hadj", "Mourad Wahid" and "Hadi Hya Dounia". In 1954, at the outbreak of the war of national liberation, the FLN ordered the cessation of all artistic and cultural activities. At the beginning of 1956, Raïs was forced to leave for France like many Algerian artists of the time and joined the Algerian theater troupe founded by Mustapha Kateb in 1940. At the end of 1956, the Federation planned to found the FLN artistic troupe and at the beginning of 1957 , Boumendjel contacted Mustapha Kateb to set up this troupe which was formed and gave birth to the epic Nahw Ennour in 1958. At this time, Raïs began to write plays on the Revolution and the Algerian people. The most famous of his plays "Les Enfants de la Casbah" (May 10, 1959), "El Ahidoun", "Dam Elahrare" tour throughout the country. After independence in 1962, Raïs joined Algerian Radio and Television and played in several films such as "The Night Afraid of the Sun" (1965), "Hassan Térro" (1965), "Chronicle of the Ember Years", "Opium and the Stick", "El Moukafeh"... And while he was in the middle of shooting a film in Bousaâda in 1979, Raïs suffered a cardiac arrest and died on the spot. He is buried in the El Kettar cemetery in Algiers.