Eagles of the Republic, which opened up this year’s Stockholm Film Festival and has been submitted to the Oscars in the category of Best International Feature Film, is arguably Sweden’s buzziest film of the year. Ahead of the film's theatrical release this Friday, we speak to the its star, Fares Fares, about going meta, shaving his beard and acting in multiple languages
In the film Eagles of the Republic Fares Fares portrays a character with whom he has a little bit in common. Georges Fahmy is, too, an accomplished actor beloved in his home country. But that’s more or less where the similarities begin and end. Fahmy, the biggest movie star in Egypt, is a playboy, an egomaniac, a gambler and a deadbeat dad. “When I read the script the first time, I said, ‘I’m struggling to find this guy likeable’,” admits Fares when I meet him the morning after the film’s gala screening at the Stockholm Film Festival (his voice is a bit raspier than usual – a telling indication of a fun evening). “He lies to everyone that’s close to him, he’s a narcissist – so how do we like this guy? Because we have to. We’re experiencing the film through his eyes.”
Fares and writer-director Tarik Saleh had a solution. “We decided he had to be a good actor,” says Fares. “He needed to defend his profession and be proud of it. So when he loses that, it makes him more human. When someone becomes human, then you start to like them.”
Fares Fares as George Fahmy with Lyna Khoudri as Donya in 'Eagles of the Republic'. Photo: ©YigitEken