It's a gift for an actress – to be able to transform, to become someone else, she to TT.
The result was the French-Belgian film "Animale", which had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Festival and is being shown in Swedish cinemas. The film takes place in Camargue in southern France. Oulaya Amamra, who previously played a vampire in the Netflix series "Vampires", now plays the role of Nejma, a woman in a male-dominated environment who wants to become a bullfighter (a special kind of bullfighting where the bulls are not harmed and the bullfighter instead has to pull a ribbon from the bull's horn).
Murdered men
One evening, she herself gets hurt by a bull – after a while, she starts to notice that something is happening to her body, at the same time as men in the area are found murdered, likely attacked by an animal.
Being an actress always means that you transform, but some characters come closer than others. I sat for eight hours in makeup, I wore a mask, I was no longer myself.
When you decided to become an actress, did you ever think "one day I'll play a bull"?
Hahaha, no really not.
The film's bulls are real, not digital. Oulaya Amamra says they are frightening.
My mom was on set. She prayed for me every day. They are dangerous animals, you can't tame them. Sometimes we had to wait for hours for a bull to react.
One day, a bull came up to me and came so close that I could feel its breath. A guard shouted to me "don't move". But I felt the animal's sensitivity. It was as if it gave me the right to be there.
Late metoo
"Animale" is directed by Emma Benestan, another young French female director who makes horror films, among other things, to protest against machismo. Oulaya Amamra sees it everywhere, not just in the film industry.
Metoo started late here, it has become better, but it's not good.
After "Animale", she did "Toutes pour une", a reinterpretation of "The Three Musketeers", but where the main characters are women.
We fought and shot, it's like a western. A film where women are not slaves but care about each other.
Age: 28.
Lives: Paris.
Occupation: Actress.
Previous roles: "The world is yours", "The little drummer girl", "Divines", "Vampires", "Smoking causes coughing"."
Current: In "Animale" which had its Swedish premiere on May 16.
