Pioneering Moroccan Actor and Director Ahmed Badouj Dies at 73

Ahmed Badouj was admitted to the intensive care unit following a malaise. He could not recover from it. Born in 1950 in Agadir, the deceased was an actor, director, screenwriter and theater man of the Amazigh cultural scene, of which he was one of the pioneers.

Self-taught, he had tried his hand at many trades (painter, carpenter, auto electrician) at a young age and had embarked with the juniors of Hassania d’Agadir in 1967-68.

He began his career in theater in the 1970s, then joined the first Amazigh theater troupe "Tifawin" (Lights) founded in 1985 by Lahoucine Bouizgaren.

An emblematic figure of Amazigh cinema, he is the author of numerous scripts and many theater plays, the most famous of which is "Tagodi" (The Sorrow), one of the first plays performed by the Tifawin troupe in the 1980s. "Tagodi" was adapted into a film by Ahmed Badouj in 1995. In 1989, he played the role of Idder in the first Amazigh film "Tamghart N’ourgh" (The Woman in Gold) by Lahoucine Bouizgaren.