Cannes best actress Melliti is football player spotted in street
CANNES - Nadia Melliti, who won best actress at the Cannes Festival Saturday for her first-ever role in a film, is a French student and amateur football player who was spotted in the street.
Melliti beat Hollywood stars Jennifer Lawrence and Elle Fanning to the award, with many critics also lauding Japanese child revelation Yui Suzuki in "Renoir".
Before walking the red carpet for the premiere of Hafsia Herzi's "The Little Sister", the 23-year-old was preparing for exams.
In the coming-of-age tale, she plays 17-year-old Fatima, a Muslim girl in Paris struggling with her identity and religion as she explores her homosexuality.
"I've never done any theatre or cinema," Melliti told AFP during the festival.
But she said she immediately empathised with the character when she read the script, based on a partly autobiographical novel of the same name by French writer Fatima Daas.
"I identified hugely with Fatima, her surroundings and origins. My mother hails from an immigrant background," she said. "My roots are Algerian. I also have sisters."
The role required her to show a wide emotional range, from scenes involving homophobia in a rough Paris school to intimate family conversations and sex with a variety of partners.
Melliti said she specifically related to the film's theme of "emancipation".
"When I was younger I wanted to play football. I still do today," said the actor. "I wanted to take up the sport, one people say is masculine and in which men are overrepresented.
"And when I took that home, there was this emancipation -- even if for Fatima it was different, more linked to her intellect and sexuality," she added.
She is seen showing off her skills, repeatedly heading a football, in the final shots of Herzi's third film as a director.
- 'I hope you are very proud' -
Melliti said she couldn't believe her luck when she was spotted by a casting agent near a large shopping mall in central Paris.
"I was walking in the street and (she) called out to me," she said.
At first "I thought she was a tourist and I wondered if my English would be up to scratch."
AFP | Valery HACHE
Marseille-born Herzi also has no formal acting training and was the revelation of French director Abdellatif Kechiche's 2007 hit "The Secret of the Grain".
She sobbed openly as an emotional Melliti accepted the prize and spoke confidently to the Cannes audience, which included some of the world's biggest movie figures.
"I have such a feeling gushing through me right now," Melliti said. "I can't describe it but it's really incredible."
"Thank you Mum. I know you're watching and I hope you are very proud and happy," she added.
"The Little Sister" also won the unofficial Queer Palm on Friday for films that spotlight LGBTQ themes.
by Alice Hackman and Juliette Rabat
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