Sid Ali Kouiret

Sid Ali Kouiret had a difficult childhood; his father, a taxi driver, often came home drunk and was violent with his mother. One day, the kid, exasperated, takes a knife and sticks it in his father's back. He thus found himself in the streets of Algiers, left school, lived on petty thefts, and, from the age of 9, took on odd jobs as a shoeshine boy, working for the port fishermen. At 17, he was a pimp at the port, and as he liked to swim, to go to the Algiers mole, he had to cross Rue de la Marine. One fine day he met Mustapha Kateb who, in the 1950s, managed a amateur theater troupe, at Café de Daniel and out of curiosity ends up at Randon Street where Kateb was rehearsing. In 1951, he found himself in Berlin with the EI-Mesrah EI-Djazairi troupe, then in Paris in 1952.

In 1954, he was in Bucharest for the 2nd Festival of Youth and Students for Peace. The same year, he turned professional and signed with the municipal troupe of Algiers directed by Mahieddine Bachetarzi. In 1955, the DST monitored the premises on rue Randon and recorded his comrades. He arrived in Marseille and went to Paris where he met Mohamed Boudia, Hadj Omar, Missoum, Nourreddine Bouhired. “We had FLN cafés, singing Min Djibalina,” he says.

Mustapha Kateb in 1958, was commissioned to create an artistic troupe to carry the flag of the fight for the independence of Algeria, Sid Ali Kouiret joined Tunis and joined the so-called FLN troupe, made up of two dramatic and lyrical ensembles, with some 35 actors, singers, musicians, dancers and technicians. Until 1962, five shows were given in Tunis, Saint Petersburg and Moscow, but also in Morocco, Libya and Iraq.

After independence, he was at the newly created Algerian National Theater (TNA), and from 1963 he began his brilliant cinematographic career. His first role on screen was in Mustapha Badie's television adaptation of the play Les Enfants de la Casbah by Abdelhalim Raïs (1963). It was with L'Opium et le Bâton (1970) by Ahmed Rachedi that he really established himself, followed by many other Algerian and foreign films including The Return of the Prodigal Son (1976) by Youssef Chahine, Bloody Fates (1980) by Kheiri Bichara, L'Empire des Rêves by Jean-Pierre Lledo, for which he won the best actor prize at the Damascus International Film Festival in 1985.

Sid Ali Kouiret retired - early - from the Algerian National Theater (TNA) in 1987. He returned to the forefront subsequently, notably in Les Bas-Fonds (Ed-Dahaliz) by Maxime Gorki by Abdelkader Alloula (1982). ), Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller by Fouzia Aït El Hadj (1987) and during the revival of El Bouaboune (Les Concierges) by Rouiched (1991). In 1992, he played in La Famille Ramdam (1990), a sitcom broadcast by the M6 ​​channel. He played in some 40 films and television films throughout his career, remaining active until the turn of 2010.

Sid Ali Kouiret, who suffered from diabetes, died on April 5, 2015 in Algiers, at the age of 82. He is buried in the cemetery of Sidi Embarek (Oued Romane) in Algiers.