Tahar Rahim

Tahar Rahim enjoyed one of the fastest rises to stardom in recent French cinema with his knockout performance as Malik in Jacques Audiard’s fine prison drama, A Prophet (2009), premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix, before picking up the Prix Louis Delluc, and nine César Awards, including Best Actor and Most Promising Actor for Rahim.

After a supporting role in the Kevin Macdonald-directed historical drama, The Eagle (2011), Rahim starred in the Cannes-premiering period war film, Free Men (2011), co-written and directed by Ismaël Ferroukhi with Michael Lonsdale. Tahar Rahim’s first starring role in a non-European film was with independent Chinese filmmaker Lou Ye on Love and Bruises (2011), with Corinne Yam, Jalil Lespert, and Zhang Songwen, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

Under the direction of Jean-Jacques Annaud, Rahim co-starred with Antonio Banderas, Freida Pinto, Mark Strong, and Riz Ahmed in the commercially disappointing Saudi drama, Black Gold (2011), earning only $5.5 million on a $40 million budget. Rahim starred with Emilie Dequenne and Niels Arestrup in Joachim Lafosse’s devastating domestic tragedy, Our Children (2012), premiering at the Cannes Film Festival and selected by Belgium to represent it at the Oscars.

Rahim continued working with auteurs with his co-lead role in Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi’s drama, The Past (2013), opposite Berenice Bejo and Ali Mosaffa, which won the Best Actress prize (for Bejo) and the Ecumenical Jury prize at the Cannes film festival. Rahim was part of another auteurist prize winner as co-star with Léa Seydoux in Rebecca Zlotowski’s Grand Central (2013), for which Rahim was nominated for Best Actor in the Lumières Awards.

Tahar Rahim co-starred opposite Gilles Lellouche in the Julien Leclercq crime thriller, The Informant (2013). Then he took on an ambitious starring role in Fatih Akin’s Armenian genocide drama, The Cut (2014), with Simon Akbarian, Hindi Zahra, and Arsinée Khanjian, and premiering in the Golden Lion competition at the Venice Film Festival.

Rahim joined the ensemble of Omar Sy, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Izia Higelin in Éric Toledano’s and Olivier Nakache’s comedy-drama, Samba (2014), which grossed a solid $39 million (on a $19 million budget) after a Toronto film festival premiere. Rahim stayed in comedy mode for the French-Belgian holiday entertainment, Le Père Noël (2014), followed by a more serious turn in the co-starring role with Adèle Exarchopoulos in the 1899-set Les Anarchistes (2015), co-written and directed by Elie Wajeman, and which premiered in the Semaine de la Critique competition sidebar at the Cannes film festival.

Tahar Rahim then collaborated with yet another world-class director in the lead role in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s moody France-Japan-Belgium co-production, Daguerrotype (2016), with Constance Rousseau, Olivier Gourmet, Mathieu Almaric, and Malik Zidi, and which premiered at the Toronto film festival.

Rahim joined rising young French filmmaker Katell Quillévéré for her third feature, the acclaimed anthology film, Heal the Living (2016), with the ensemble of Emmanuelle Seigner, Anne Dorval, Bouli Lanners, Kool Shen, Monia Chokri, Alice de Lencquesaing, and Danielle Arbid, and then premiered at the Venice film festival.

After co-starring with Maïwenn and Roschdy Zem in writer-director Teddy Lussi-Modeste’s drama, The Price of Success (2017), Rahim portrayed Judas to Joaquin Phoenix’s Jesus in the English-language Biblical drama, Mary Magdalene (2018), starring Rooney Mara in the title role. Rahim again appeared in a Cannes premiere with co-writer/director Marie Monge’s French drama, Treat Me Like Fire (2018), with Stacy Martin and was unveiled in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight competition.

Tahar Rahim began to shift into more English-language productions as he was picked by filmmaker Lone Scherfig to co-star with Zoe Kazan, Esben Smed, Andrea Riseborough, Caleb Landry Jones, and Bill Nighy in the international co-production, The Kindness of Strangers (2019), premiering to poor reviews at the Berlin film festival.

Rahim received wide acclaim, plus best actor nominations from the Golden Globes and the BAFTA Awards, for his intense turn in the Guantanamo Bay drama, The Mauritanian (2021), co-starring Jodie Foster, Shailene Woodley, and Benedict Cumberbatch, grossing $7.5 million in limited theatrical.

Ridley Scott cast Rahim to reunite with fellow actor Joaquin Phoenix to portray Paul Barras in the $200-million budgeted Napoleon (2023), with Vanessa Kirby, Ben Miles, and Ludivine Sagnier. In his first Marvel movie, Rahim played Ezekiel Sims in the S.J. Clarkson-directed Madame Web (2024), joining a cast of Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O’Connor, and Isabella Merced.

Tahar Rahim shifted back to French films by taking on the demanding role of singer/songwriter/actor Charles Aznavour in writers-directors Mehdi Idir’s and Grand Corps Malade’s musical biopic, Monsieur Aznavour (2024), with Soufiane Guerrab and Bastien Bouillon.