Amira Casar
Amira Casar is a British-French film actress. She was nominated for a César Award for Most Promising Actress for the 1997 film La Vérité si je mens! and also for the Palme d'Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival for the film To Paint or Make Love. In 2010, she won the Best Actress award at La Rochelle Television Film Festival in 2010 for her turn in La femme qui pleure au chapeau rouge.
Early life
Amira Casar was born in London and raised in England, Ireland, and France. She studied drama at the Conservatoire National d'Art Dramatique de Paris between 1991 and 1994. She is fluent in English, Kurdish, and French and has also worked in German, Italian, and Spanish.Career
Casar's first role was in the 1989 film ' by. She played Sandra Benzakhem in the 1997 film La Vérité si je mens !, for which she was nominated for a César Award for Most Promising Actress. She later appeared in the film's two sequels, in 2001 and 2012.Casar portrayed Myriem in How I Killed My Father by Anne Fontaine; Assia Wevill in Sylvia by Christine Jeffs; the lead role of The Woman in the Catherine Breillat erotic film Anatomy of Hell ; and Eva in To Paint or Make Love by Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu, which was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.
Other roles include Marianne in Hypnotized and Hysterical, a film by which won the Grand Golden Rail at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival; Malvina van Stille in The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes by the Brothers Quay ; and Marie in Tony Gatlif's Transylvania in 2006.
In 2007, Casar appeared in installation artist Sophie Calle's Venice Biennale piece Prenez soin de vous.
In 2008, she played Dolorès in Laetitia Masson's ', and portrayed Irene in Werner Schroeter's last film, Nuit de chien. Casar played the lead role of Anna Di Baggio in the Éléonore Faucher film ' in 2009.
She won the Best Actress award at La Rochelle Television Film Festival for her portrayal of Dora Maar in ' in 2010. In 2011, Casar played Irène in , and Deniz in Playoff. In 2013, she appeared in the Arnaud des Pallières film Michael Kohlhaas, and portrayed Anne-Marie Munoz in Bertrand Bonello's Saint Laurent in 2014.
In 2015, Casar appeared in The Forbidden Room by Canadian director Guy Maddin. and portrayed Béatrice, Madame de Clermont, in the TV series Versailles. In 2017, she played Annella Perlman in the film Call Me by Your Name. She also appeared in the 2019 Caroline Fourest film Sisters in Arms, about a team of female Kurdish soldiers and volunteers.
In 2022, Casar appeared in the film The Contractor. She portrayed Edith Frank, the mother of Anne Frank, in the 2023 Disney+ series A Small Light.
On stage, Casar's work includes the Almeida Theatre production of Aunt Dan and Lemon, the title role in Hedda Gabler at Le Petit Théâtre de Paris, and Olivier Py's 2009 production of Les Enfants de Saturne at the Theatre National de L'Odéon, Paris. In 2011, she appeared in the title role of Petra in The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, and received critical acclaim in Arthur Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher at the Barbican Centre with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Casar also appeared in the 1995 Bryan Adams music video for "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?".
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1996 | Sharpe's Siege | Catherine | TV series, S04E02 |
| 1997 | Opération Bugs Bunny | Marie-Noëlle | TV movie |
| 2000 | Arabian Nights | Morgiana | TV miniseries |
| 2001 | Murder on the Orient Express | Helena von Strauss | TV movie |
| 2003 | 40 | Kristina | TV miniseries |
| 2003 | ' | Rachel | TV miniseries |
| 2008 | ' | Antonia | TV movie |
| 2010 | ' | Dora Maar | TV movie |
| 2015 | Versailles | Béatrice, Madame de Clermont | TV series |
| 2017 | ' | Gabrielle Monti | TV movie |
| 2019 | Savages | Daria | TV series |
| 2021 | Voltaire High | Irène | TV Series, S1E5 |
| 2023 | A Small Light | Edith Frank | TV miniseries |
| 2024 | Perle Foster | TV series |
Accolades
- 1998 – Nomination: César Award for Most Promising Actress for La Vérité si je mens !
- 2016 – Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters