In the first film Mouna and Lina Soualem made with their mother, Hiam Abbass, personal attachments went out the window: “There’s no time for that.”
Hiam Abbass: I see you both as a continuation of my path, in a way. But I didn’t plan it. As a mother, I just wanted you to do what you wanted to do.
Lina Soualem: Mouna, you always knew you would be an actress. I felt that because both our parents [their father is the French Algerian actor Zinedine Soualem] acted, I would never be as good as them, so I started working in journalism first. I think I had to go through that to find my voice.
Mouna Soualem: I love your discipline and commitment [as a filmmaker], Lina. You don’t let go when you want something. It’s different being an actor, when so much is out of your control and sometimes you must let go or you’ll go crazy.
H.A.: We can also let go in order to be somebody else. The first time the three of us collaborated, for my film “Inheritance” (2012), I was playing a mother, and you two were playing my daughters. When we’re on set, though, I don’t relate to you both as my daughters, just as you don’t relate to me as your mom. There’s no time for that.
M.S.: It can be challenging. There was that scene where you had to slap me, Mom. You’d never slapped me in my life, and when you did it, I cried. I was just so surprised.
H.A.: And of course, we have disputes like everybody else.
L.S.: We argue more about day-to-day things than professional things; for example, if one of us isn’t helping enough with making lunch.
H.A.: Because we’re a trio, if one of the three of us is ever in distress, the other two try to join forces and help them.
L.S.: Like when, Mouna, you were going through the long audition process for “Oussekine” [the 2022 French series about the 22-year-old student Malik Oussekine, who died in 1986 after being beaten by police] — it was tough because I was already working on the series in the writers’ room and, Mom, you were confirmed as an actress.
M.S.: I felt very pressured by everybody’s expectations. So we had a conversation at some point, and I just said, “Let’s lower the pressure.” We gave each other space, and two months later, the three of us were working together on the show.
L.S.: Family is the best thing and the most difficult thing. We’re lucky that we’re able to open ourselves up artistically together. And I think that within the industry, as women, we’re now more conscious of our power when we come together and communicate.
M.S.: That’s partly why the documentary films you’re bringing into the world, Lina, are so necessary.
L.S.: The latest, “Bye Bye Tiberias,” which is expected for release this year, is about our Palestinian family. I filmed you [Hiam], your seven sisters and our grandmother. It’s about the transmission of our story through powerful relationships between women.
H.A.: I was terrified. It’s easier for me to play a part than to be shown as myself, but you were patient with me.
Interview has been edited and condensed.
Makeup: Clara Barban-Dangerfield
Source: Television - nytimes.com
