Darine Hamze

Darine Hamze
Born	Darine Hamze 5 July 1978 Beirut, Lebanon
Nationality	Lebanese
Occupation	Actress, Director
Years active	1998 - present

Darine Hamze (Arabic: دارين حمزة‎); is a Lebanese actress, director and poet. She is one of the well known actresses in the Arab world credited for taking on diverse roles and in different languages and countries. She has been working in film, television and theatre since 1998.

Biography

Darine Hamze, was born as a second child to a flight engineer father and a housewife interior decorator mother, in the mountains of Souk El Gharb, Lebanon. She faced a childhood of constant traveling, changing of schools, between Souk El Gharb, Beirut and France during the civil war. She was finally sent to the United Kingdom (England), between the age of 8 and 13, to a British boarding school (ISC) in Bath, along with her two brothers.

During her time in England, Darine discovered Shakespeare's theatre and her early admiration for performance. Evidently her first appearance on a stage was during this young age in Bath participating in all school plays. In 1996 Darine Hamze applied and was accepted to the Fine Arts Academy of the Lebanese University, Theatre Department. Her first play performance in Lebanon began in 1997 in "Alraghif" directed by Talal Dirjani. The following year, 1998, was a very busy year. Darine began with a play performance in the play "Qana's Border" by Mashhour Mostapha. She also became the main actress singer for the best renowned "Lebanese Puppet Theatre" group directed by Karim Dakroub. Along with that were participations in international puppet festivals and workshops that had her travel to most of Europe's capitals to perform. Moreover, during that same year, she had her first part as a main role in a Lebanese TV series called "Talbeen Alkourob" screened on LBCI.

Next, 1999, was the year of her graduation with a BA in Theatre Arts (acting/directing). It was also the year Darine won the first prize award for her graduation film "Flat, Pale, White Hands" at The Future TV Academic Excellence Awards. This event helped her discover how much she admires camera and film, and from this moment on she was convinced that her career will include the big screen.

Her new love of film expanded more as she acted the main role in the film "Her Absurdity" by Chadi Zein in the year 2000. She continued taking on theatre proposals by acting in the object-moving theatre play "THE" by Sam Bardawil the same year. The following year, 2001, Darine travelled back to London that year to publish her poetry art book "7am Blink" on the web launched 111101 (London, UK) in collaboration with the painter/illustrator, Rafic Majzoub. In 2002, Darine travelled to New York where she attended film making classes at Columbia University. There she acted in the short student film “The Park” directed by Nadine Khouri.

Her connection with England led her, in 2003, to apply to the British Council's MA scholarships. She was accepted and travelled to London, UK for an MA in Media Arts Practice at the University of Westminster. Her two years as an MA student in London gave birth to two video installation exhibition shows she prepared: “I Axis” at 291 Gallery and “Flesh Exits” at The Lennox Gallery. There she was able to build her directing and editing skills and created a new short experimental film ‘’Skin Plasticity’’. She also traveled to Ireland and worked as an assistant director in the short 16mm film “Killing the Afternoon” directed by Margaret Corkery. In 2005, Darine returned to Beirut with her MA from London and directly started giving courses in acting, editing and media arts in a number of Universities. She also worked as a director/editor in two cinema critique episodes in the program "Al-Adasa Al-Arabia", for Al-Jazeera TV.^[1]

Her acting passion, however, kept peeking back, and the next year, 2006, Darine accepted a main role, “Aayda”, in the Lebanese TV series "Hkeyit Aayda - Aayda'’s story" for LBCI. That same year, she participated with her idol (top Lebanese artist-singer/icon), Fairuz, as an actress in a choral composition in Fairuz's Musical play "Sah Alnom", Baalbeck International Festival.

From then on, Darine concentrated on acting alone. Thus, the following year 2007 was spent acting two main roles in two Iranian film productions being shot in Lebanon: “Last song of Sinbad” directed by Arash Moayenian, and “Rebirth” directed by Abbas Rafie. This gave her the opportunity to grow into an acting career in Iranian cinema, in 2008, where she was given the main role co-starring Iranian superstar actor, Parviz Parastui, in a 35mm feature film "The Book of Law - Kitab Kanoun" directed by Maziar Miri. Her character "Juliet" was a foreigner who marries an Iranian and moves there to live with him, only ending up criticizing the whole Iranian Islamic society. It was a great challenge traveling between Lebanon and Iran and learning by heart a full text in the Persian language that she had never heard or spoken before.^[2]

During that same year she acted as main cast in a video clip "Hamil Outer Bladi" with one of her childhood Lebanese idol singers, the famous theatre artist Ghassan Saliba, composed by Osama Rahbani and directed by Joe Abou Eid. She also received a main part as Joumana in the TV series "Mogamarat Jad Wa Nour - Adventures of Jad & Nour" for OTV, directed by Fadi Kadouh; as well as another role in the LBCI TV series, "Shayeh Min Alkowa" directed by Elie Maalouf.

The year 2008 was ended with a main role in the film "Shola Cohen - The Pearl / Al Louhlouha", featuring the story of the real life events of a Jewish Lebanese spy, Shola Cohen, who was captured in the 1950s under the reign of President Fuad Chehab. This film was produced by LBCI and directed by Fouad Khoury.^[3]

2009 started with the shooting of "Al-Dawama - The Loop", a Syrian TV drama series with Darine as main role actress starring as Nadia Najmi – a high class sophisticated divorcee of half-French half-Syrian origins. Al-Dawama was written by the late Mamdouh Aadwan and directed by Alouthana Sobh. The plot spins around Syria's revolutions and political surrounding in the late 1940-50s while illustrating a beautiful love story that ends dramatically in that era. In the same year, Darine was a guest star in Iranian film, “Saturday's Hunter” by director Parviz Sheikh Tadi and nominated in the Fajr Film Festival.

2010 she acted as main role in “Selim w Distit Harim”, a comedy TV Series for MBC with a number of different Arab actors from Egypt, Kuwait, Syria and Lebanon. She will also appear as guest star in the TV Series “Hawamir Alsahraa” for Rotana Khalijiya these coming months.

Currently Darine Hamze is preparing for a new Lebanese-French film projects which will be shot this autumn in Lebanon.

Filmography

• 1998 - Talbeen El Orb - (TV Series- LBCI)
• 1999 - Flat, Pale, White Hands - (short film- Lebanese University *As Director)
• 2000 - Her Absurdity - (short film- Lebanese University)
• 2002 - The Park - (short film- Columbia University, NY)
• 2003 - I-Axis - (short film- University of Westminster, UK *As Director)
• 2004 - Skin Plasticity - (short film- University of Westminster, UK *As Director)
• 2006 - Hkeyit Aayda - (TV Series- LBCI)
• 2006 - Alaadasa Alarabia - (documentary- Al-Jazeera *As director)
• 2007 - 911 - (TV Series- LBC SAT)
• 2007 - Last Song of Sinbad - (Iranian film- fiction- HD)
• 2008 - Rebirth - (Iranian film- fiction- HD)
• 2008 - Hamil Outer Bladi - (Music Video- 35mm)
• 2008 - Shola Cohen, The Pearl - (Film- fiction/biography- HD)
• 2008 - Drabzin - (short film- Notre Dame University)
• 2009 - Adventures of Jad & Nour - (TV Series- OTV)
• 2009 - Shayeh Min Alqouwa - (TV Series- LBCI)
• 2009 - Al-Dawama - (TV Series- Syria TV) -
• 2009 - The Book of Law - (Iranian feature film- fiction- 35mm)
• 2009 - Majnouni - (short film- Université Saint-Joseph)
• 2010 - Aala El-aahed - (TV Series- New TV)
• 2010 - Saturday's Hunter - (Iranian feature film- fiction- HD)
• 2010 - Selim w Distit Harim - (TV Series- MBC)
• 2010 - South Of Heaven - (Iranian film- fiction- 35mm)
• 2011 - Al-Ghaliboun
• 2011 - Beirut Hotel

References

1. ^ http://www.darinehamze.com
2. ^ http://www.tehrantimes.com/Index_view.asp?code=209900
3. ^ http://lebaneseinnercircle.com/2009/04/21/shola-cohen-the-pearl-a-lebanese-movie-to/

Persondata
Name	Hamze, Darine
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	5 July 1978
Place of birth	Beirut, Lebanon
Date of death
Place of death