An Egyptian at The Cleopatra Club

Vienna-based Egyptian actor Faris Rahoma is currently co-starring in the new theatrical production The Cleopatra Club by Paul Schrader, the cult author who penned great films like Taxi Driver and Raging Bull for director Martin Scorsese. In The Cleopatra Club, Rahoma plays an Egyptian officer who interrogates two American filmmakers visiting Egypt during the Cairo Film Festival. Strangely enough, many tiny details found in the play are based on Schrader’s own visit to Egypt when he was invited to be a member of the jury at the Cairo Film Festival back in the late 1990s. The play debuted on Broadway in 2004 and is now being shown for the first time at Vienna’s Stadt Theater. Rahoma got his big break co-starring in Youssef Chahine’s Al-Massir (Destiny) in 1997, and has gone on to appear in Austrian films, TV series and plays. His father Nabil Rahoma is also an Egyptian actor and producer who moved to Vienna many years ago.