As a young teenager growing up in Madrid, Nourdin Batan watched the Spanish series The Prince, which was filmed in the same neighbourhood in Ceuta — the Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa — where his mother is from originally and realised that he looked like the actors on screen.
“I saw a young lad, my age and of North African descent,” Batan recalls. “It made me think it might be something I could do. I was 13 and decided to call an agency. And guess what was my first audition? The Prince. They didn’t take me but offered a part to my brother who also came along.”
He had to be patient for his debut, but it was worth the wait. Iranian director Asghar Farhadi came to shoot Everybody Knows, starring Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, in Spain in 2017 and cast Batan in a small role — his career had kicked into gear.
On television, the actor’s breakthrough came in 2020 with the series Hit for RTVE, playing a troubled high-school student. He went on to appear in Alex de la Iglesia’s 30 Coins for HBO Max. Now two big roles are coming up, both in films directed by Daniel Calparsoro.
All The Names Of God, which opened in Spain via Tripictures on September 15, sees Batan play Hamza, the only surviving terrorist after a jihadist attack at Madrid’s airport who takes hostage a taxi driver, played by Luis Tosar.
“I have a tattoo of an ‘H’ because one of my uncles was murdered in a terrorist attack in Morocco. His name was Hamza, like the character I play. I was the same age when I shot the film as he was when he was killed.”
Batan’s second collaboration with Calparsoro is the thriller El Correo, now in post.
Moving forward, Batan would love to emulate the kind of career enjoyed by Tahar Rahim and Riz Ahmed. “I have been lucky to not just play terrorists or drug dealers because of my looks,” he says. “My character in All The Names Of God avoids that cliché.”
Contact: Pedro Garay, Garay Talent
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