Though Algerian-French actor Lyna Khoudri has never been to Sweden, she’s making a splash here as one of the stars of Eagles of the Republic. As the film hits theatres, we get to know a bit more about Khoudri and her experience working with Swedes
Algerian-French actor Lyna Khoudri doesn’t have a lot of experience with Sweden (in fact, she’s never been here) but she has plenty of experience with Swedes. And, in turn, Swedes are getting to know her. In Eagles of the Republic, the Tarik Saleh-directed political thriller that hit Swedish theatres over the weekend, Khoudri plays Donya, the girlfriend of famed Egyptian actor George Fahmy, played by Fares Fares.
“I already loved Tarik's films, so I really wanted to work with him,” says Khoudri. “And the script was very powerful, thought-provoking, and the role very interesting. I had never played a girl who was so funny, and so different from myself.”
Still of Lyna Khoudri and Fares Fares from 'Eagles of the Republic. Photo: Yigit Eken
Thank heavens Khoudri doesn’t have much in common with her character. Donya is a shameless opportunist – an aspiring actress seemingly dating the older George (sorry, Fares) in order to further her own career. In a film that, though potent and political, offers a lot of laughs, the scenes Khoudri shares with Fares are especially amusing. "Fares is a tremendous actor, very generous and impressive,” says Khoudri. “I loved working with him.”
According to Khoudri, Saleh and Fares, who previously worked together on The Nile Hilton Incident and Boy From Heaven (Eagles of the Republic marks the third and final film in the duo’s Cairo-centric trilogy), created a great vibe on set. “It's true that Tarik and Fares knew each other very well, but that was actually a very positive thing because they created and fostered a very friendly atmosphere on set,” says Khoudri. “So it was work, but in a natural and open environment. They knew how to make everyone around them feel comfortable, and invited us to share their world.”
The themes of free speech and propaganda explored in Eagles of the Republic (the film finds Fares’ Fahmy unwillingly performing in a biopic about the Egyptian president) are not foreign to Khoudri. Born in Algiers, Khoudri and her family moved to Aubervilliers, France when she was two-years-old. At the time they were exiles; her father was a journalist and had been receiving death threats during the Algerian Civil War (her mother, meanwhile, is a violinist). She earned her French citizenship at 18-years-old.
Lyna wears Chanel 2017 Fall Couture at Cannes. Photo: Getty
Though she may be a fresh face here in Sweden, at 33, Khoudri has had quite the career. She nabbed the Orizzonti Award for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival in 2017 for her role in Les Bienheureux (The Blessed), which follows a family dealing with the aftermath of the Algerian Civil War (a subject matter with which Khoudri is personally familiar). Internationally, however, she’s best recognised from The French Dispatch, in which she plays the girlfriend of Timothée Chalamet’s character.
Sufficient to say, Khoudri knows her way around a film festival red carpet. So when it came time to premiere Eagles of the Republic at Cannes, she did not disappoint in the look department, ascending the iconic staircase in archival Chanel by Karl Lagerfeld from the Fall 2017 Couture collection. “I thought it had character and I was amused by the bowtie shape,” she says. “A bit like a gift package you give out at a film premiere in Cannes.”
Though she didn’t make it to Stockholm for the film’s gala screening at the Stockholm Film Festival, she knows she’d love it here. “I already really like a Swede named Tarik,” she says. “He makes me appreciate the spirit.”