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Leila Shenna

Leila Shenna

Acting

Biography

Leila Shenna (Arabic: ليلى شنّا‎‎; born Morocco) is a Moroccan former actress who featured on film mostly in the 1970s. She is most commonly remembered in English speaking countries for her role as a Bond girl in the 1979 film Moonraker as an evil air hostess. However, she also starred in the 1968 film Remparts d'argile (initially released in Italy, later released in the United States in 1970 under the title Ramparts of Clay) directed by Jean-Louis Bertucelli, the 1975 Palme D'or winner Chronique des années de braise directed by Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina, as well as the 1982 Algerian film Vent de sable, also directed by Lakhdar-Hamina. The first two films were set in Algeria, the third simply in the desert. She also had a minor role in the 1977 film March or Die. She is the cousin of Malika Oufkir, the writer of Stolen Lives: Twenty Years In A Desert Jail, an account of the failed 1972 assassination attempt on the King of Morocco by her father (and Leila's uncle), General Mohamed Oufkir. Description above from the Wikipedia article Leila Shenna, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For

Moonraker
6.2

After Drax Industries' Moonraker space shuttle is hijacked, secret agent James Bond is assigned to investigate, traveling to California to meet the company's owner, the mysterious Hugo Drax. With the help of scientist Dr. Holly Goodhead, Bond soon uncovers Drax's nefarious plans for humanity, all the while fending off an old nemesis, Jaws, and venturing to Venice, Rio, the Amazon...and even outer space.

Moonraker

1979
March or Die
5.8

Just after World War I, Major Foster is incorporating new recruits into his French Foreign Legion platoon when he is sent to his former remote outpost located in the French Morocco to protect an archaeological excavation from El Krim, a Rifian leader who intends to unite all local tribes to fight the colonial government…

March or Die

1977
Sex-Power
4.9

A young Frenchman arrives in Northern California looking to forget a lost love and ends up encountering various forms of feminine power.

Sex-Power

1970
December
10.0

In Algiers, during the Algerian War of Independence, one of the leaders of the FLN was arrested by the French colonial army, which used the most violent methods to make the prisoners speak. The use of torture poses a conscience problem for a French officer. Playing shot-reverse-shot, between the tortured and his torturer, in a suffocating camera, Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina approaches torture by drawing inspiration from the story of his father, who died of abuse.

December

1973
Chronicle of the Years of Fire
6.7

A meticulous chronicle of the evolution of the Algerian national movement from 1939 until the outbreak of the revolution on November 1, 1954, the film unequivocally demonstrates that the "Algerian War" is not an accident of history, but a slow process of suffering and warlike revolts, uninterrupted, from the start of colonization in 1830, until this "Red All Saints' Day" of November 1, 1954. At its center, Ahmed gradually awakens to political awareness against colonization, under the gaze of his son, a symbol of the new Algeria, and that of Miloud, half-mad haranguer, half-prophet, incarnation of Popular memory of the revolt, the liberation of Algeria and its people.

Chronicle of the Years of Fire

1975
Château Espérance
7.0

Rachid, a North African immigrant worker in the Fayard company for several years, saved to bring his wife Leïla and their son Larbi. They arrive in France for the first time. Leïla full of hope came to join her husband in exile. But very quickly, it is the shock: the difficult working conditions, the hard daily life of her husband and the surrounding grayness marked by anti-Arab racism does not bode well.

Château Espérance

1976
The East Wind
9.0

Set in the mid-1950s when Tangier was still an international zone, El Chergui presents the city on the eve of its independence, as Aïcha resorts to magical practices to try to prevent her husband from taking a second wife. Around her, a society of women creates its own form of active resistance even as the larger independence movement grows around it. Through his unique use of montage, Smihi creates arresting images that present a society torn by the contradictions of colonialism, religion, patriarchy, and resistance. (Block Cinema)

The East Wind

1975
Sandstorm
10.0

Seen right through the sandstorms that rack the lives of a tribe living on a desert oasis, is a subtle and not-so-subtle mistreatment of the female members of the tribe - tribal chiefs have the right to be the first to deflower virgins, and single or widowed mothers must walk a narrow line of behavior restrictions that do not apply to their male counterparts. Both genders, however, fight the brunt of the harsh desert winds together.

Sandstorm

1982
Ramparts of Clay
7.1

In a village on the edge of the Sahara, Rima, a 19-year-old orphan, dreams of learning, of discovering, of living free while the men of the salt mine go on strike. The authorities react by sending the army, Rima decides to help the strikers by trapping the soldiers. Co-produced with the Office des Actualités Algériens and shot in the region of Téhouda, 50 kilometers from Biskra, this Franco-Algerian film is fully part of the cinematographic heritage of both shores of the Mediterranean. Bertuccelli adopts the technique of cinema verite, with non-professional actors from the village itself, giving the film a striking documentary texture and a rare force of authenticity. Carried by the moving interpretation of Leila Shenna in the role of Rima, the actor Krikèche and lulled by the music of Taos Amrouche, the film questions female emancipation, social resistance and the relationship with the territory.

Ramparts of Clay

1970
Conquer to Live
8.0

Karim decides one day to leave his village in the Rif and to venture into the big city of Casablanca where he must conquer, first to live, then to express himself.

Conquer to Live

1968