Happy 40th Birthday, Elyas M’Barek!

29 Mai

Elyas M’Barek is one of the few uncontested stars of current German cinema – an audience favourite, box-office draw and guarantor of success. Self-deprecating and unafraid of stereotypes when selecting his roles, he plays with clichés and combines mainstream movies with sophisticated cinema.

The son of a Tunisian father and an Austrian mother who grew up in Munich, M’Barek's cinema debut came when he was still in school, in the teen hit Mädchen, Mädchen (Girls on Top, 2001). His breakthough came with the role of prototypical Turkish macho Cem Öztürk in the ARD series Türkisch für Anfänger (Turkish for Beginners, 2005–2008). Not only the series received awards; Elyas M’Barek also won the German Television Award for Best Actor in a series. His first leading role in a cinema film was in the youth drama Wholetrain (2006): additional performances followed in successful German films like Die Welle (The Wave, 2008) and Til Schweiger's Zweiohrküken (Rabbit Without Ears, 2009). The trade paper "Variety" dubbed him one of the "10 Actors to Watch: Breakthrough Performers of 2012". This assessment was confirmed the following year when, in 2013, Elyas M’Barek was a sensational success as a former petty criminal and involuntary substitute teacher in Fack ju Göhte (F*ck You, Goethe). With more than seven million viewers in Germany, it was the the biggest box-office hit of the year and one of the most commercially successful German films overall. Two sequels, Fack ju Göhte 2 and 3 came out in 2015 and 2017.
Since that time, M’Barek has also established himself in more serious fare, such as the thriller Who Am I - Kein System ist sicher (Who Am I – No System is Safe, 2014) as a computer hacker who lands in the sights of the German Federal Intelligence Service, and in the drama Dieses bescheuerte Herz (This Crazy Heart, 2017) as a superficial millionaire's son who must take in a terminally ill boy. In 2019, he played a defence lawyer in a murder trial full of contradictions in Der Fall Collini (The Collini Case), based on true events. With his usual great success, he returned to comedy in Das perfekte Geheimnis and Willkommen bei den Hartmanns (Welcome to Germany), both in 2019, as well as Nightlife (2020). His most recent comedy Liebesdings (2021) will arrive in cinemas this year.

Currently, M’Barek is filming Tausend Zeilen, a modern media satire based on the book “Tausend Zeilen Lüge” by journalist Juan Moreno. It tells the story of how Moreno uncovered the machinations of  "Spiegel" reporter Claas Relotius, causing one of the biggest German press scandals of all time.

Suck me Shakespeer (Fack Ju Göhte) - 2013

After a 13-month stretch in prison, the crook Zeki Müller is looking for the loot from his last robbery. He applies for a position as a janitor at the school, since, as it happens, the money is buried under the new school gym. However, Zeki lands a job as a supply teacher. He has to deal with a naive trainee teacher and problem kids who can’t even spell “Fuck you, Goethe” correctly. Thus, the young man unintentionally embarks on a career in education. Bora Dagtekin’s wild farce was the most successful German film of 2013.

Image © 2013 Constantin Film Verleih GmbH / Christoph Assmann