Hadj Smaine Mohamed Seghir

Born: 1932-10-29

Hadj Smaine Mohamed Seghir, (often credited Hadj Smaine) born October 29, 1932 in Constantine, and died September 6, 2021 in Los Angeles, is an Algerian actor and director. At that time, Constantine was considered a place giving great importance to religion, culture, art, and Algerian Arab-Muslim traditions. Hadj Smaine grew up in Constantine with his family and friends who loved art and culture in general; cinema, music, scouting, sports such as swimming in Sidi M'Sid. With his scout friends, Hadj Smaine played sketches inspired by the films they watched in the city's theaters. With friends, they went to the Constantine film club (ex. Université Populaire, Abdelhamid Ben Badis Center currently). The Popular University, which was at the same time the conservatory of the city of Constantine, had premises allocated to associations for musicians, for amateur theater, among others for scouts. The Popular University also had other administrative functions because it depended on a state structure; the French Colonial Administration. Over time, Hadj Smaine had joined the theater troupe Les Milles et une Nuits with other friends of scouting; Hassan Belhadj (1st director of Algerian Cinema, great actor, patriot and former collaborator of M'Hamed Yazid) and Abdelkrim Menaï (former scout of Muslim scouts). After several years of theater practice, Hadj Smaine left the troupe Les Milles et Une Nuit in order to create a theater without "sketch", similar to that which was practiced in Europe and in the Arab world (in Egypt more particularly). Among others, Hadj Smaine was a member of the following theater troupes: Les Milles et Une Nuits, Les Compagnons du Vieux Rocher, The Algerian theater team before Independence (from 1957 to 1958), The troupe of the Youth House of Hussein Dey (before 1962), Les Capucines d'Alger (before 1962), The National Theater of Algeria (at Independence). He died on September 6, 2021 in Los Angeles (USA).


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The Battle of Algiers

as uncredited
Released: 1966-09-08

Tracing the struggle of the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale to gain freedom from French...

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Chronicle of the Years of Fire

as Slimane
Released: 1975-11-26

A meticulous chronicle of the evolution of the Algerian national movement from 1939 until the...

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The Winds of the Aures

as Si Ahmed
Released: 1967-06-08

Le Vent des Aurès – the first road movie of Algerian cinema – describes the transformations of...

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The Man Who Was Looking at the Windows

as Rachid
Released: 1985-01-01

A police office in Algiers sometime after independence. Mr Rachid, father, around fifty years...

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Patrol in the East

as uncredited
Released: 1971-01-02

The film traces the story of a patrol of the Algerian National Liberation Army (ALN), whose...

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Last Image

as uncredited
Released: 1986-06-02

Seen through the filtered lens of boyhood memories, award-winning director Mohamed...

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Sharia

as Hamza Benabas
Released: 2016-02-12

Sofiane is an Arab immigrant who lives in the US away from religion, customs, and traditions of...

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Cry of Stone

as Si Mahmoud
Released: 1987-01-14

Led by Daoudi, a disenchanted architect, a group of Constantines return to their village in deep...

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أطفال نوفمبر

as Inspecteur Tichout
Released: 1975-01-02

In the streets of the Casbah of Algiers, an FLN fighter pursued by the colonial police hands...

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The Adventures of a Hero

as uncredited
Released: 1979-01-02

In one of the tribes of the Algerian Sahara, everyone awaits the arrival of the hero who will...

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The Uprooted

as uncredited
Released: 1977-03-01

In 1880, in colonized Algeria, it was decided that the Algerian peasants of the Ouarsenis...

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L’Incendie (El Harik)

as uncredited
First aired: 1974-03-15

In 1939 in eastern Algeria, Omar, a young boy of ten, lives with his family in a room in Dar...

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