Abdellah Taïa
Abdellah Taïa (born August 8, 1973 in Salé ) is an openly gay Moroccan writer, journalist and filmmaker who has lived in exile in Paris since 1999 .
life and work
Taïa grew up as one of nine children in Salé. He was introduced to literature through his father, a caretaker at the Rabat City Library . As a teenager Taïa had his first gay experiences, which confronted him with the “ machismo ” in Moroccan society. In 1998 he was given the opportunity to leave Morocco during a semester of study in Geneva .
In 2006, in an interview with Tel Quel , a Moroccan political magazine, he became the first Moroccan writer to admit his homosexuality , which led to massive hostility in his home country.
Taïa's books not only tell of his life as a gay man in an anti-gay environment, but also reflect on an autobiographical background the social experiences of the generation that grew up in Morocco in the 1980s and 1990s.
Taïa also works as a journalist, including for Le Monde and the Guardian , and has been very committed to the “ Arab Spring ” as a journalist in recent years .
With his debut film "L'armée du salut", a free adaptation of his novel of the same name, Taïa also introduced himself as a filmmaker at the Venice Festival in autumn 2013.
Awards
- 2010: Prix de Flore for Le Jour du roi
- 2014: Festival d'Angers: Grand Prix du Jury for L'armée du salut
- 2014: Outfest Los Angeles: Special Programming Award for Artistic Achievement for L'armée du salut
- 2014: Durban International Film Festival: Award for Best First Feature Film for L'armée du salut
Works (selection)
- Mon Maroc , narration. Séguier 2000
- Le rouge du Tarbouche , novel. Séguier 2005
- L'armée du salut , novel. Seuil 2006
- Maroc 1900-1960, un certain regard . Actes Sud 2007 (with Frédéric Mitterrand )
- Une mélancolie arabe , novel. Seuil 2008
-
Lettres à un jeune marocain . Seuil 2009.
- German: letters to a young Moroccan . Translated from the French by a collective of authors from the University of Vienna under the direction of Margret Millischer. Passagen Verlag, Vienna 2013.
-
Le jour du Roi , novel. Seuil, 2010
- German: The day of the king , novel. Translated from the French by Andréas Riehle. Suhrkamp, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-518-42295-3
- Infidèles , novel. Seuil, 2012.
- Un pays pour mourir , novel. Seuil, 2015.
- Arabs Are No Longer Afraid - Texts On A Revolution Underway , Political Essays. Translated into English by Noura Wedell. Semiotext (s), 2015.
- Celui qui est digne d'être aimé , Roman. Seuil, 2017, ISBN 978-2-02-134307-6 .
- La vie lente , Roman, Seuil, 2019.
- Un jour je partirai . Play performed at the Festival d'Avignon 2018.
Movies
- L'armée du salut , 2013.
Web links
- http://abdellahtaia.free.fr/
- Literature by and about Abdellah Taïa in the catalog of the German National Library
- Abdellah Taïa in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Moroccan love drama: Going to the ruler's laundry , Spiegel Online , May 10, 2012, on The King's Day
- Why didn't you want to wait any longer? , Stuttgarter Zeitung , March 22, 2014
- About Taïa's first film L'armée du salut (en), New York Times , April 11, 2014
Individual evidence
- ^ "Interview with Abdellah Taia" ( Memento from June 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). Interviewed by Brian Whitaker in Paris, January 2009.
- ↑ Qantara.de : “The Moroccan Writer Abdellah Taïa - Melancholy and Objection” , June 30, 2008
- ↑ Deutschlandfunk : “Protest against homosexual hatred” , March 25, 2008
- ^ "Interview with Abdellah Taïa, director of L'Armée du salut (Salvation Army)" , 2013.
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ " The Day of the King " on perlentaucher.de (with excerpt)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Taïa, Abdellah |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Moroccan writer and journalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 8, 1973 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Salé |