The Desert Ark

Mohamed Chouikh (born 1943) is an Algerian filmmaker and actor. Mohamed Chouikh was born at Mostaganem, Algeria on 3 September 1943, where he was to become a stage actor with a troupe which later developed into the Algerian National Theatre. In 1965, he acted in one of Algeria's greatest film productions, L'Aube des damnés by René Vautier and Ahmed Rachedi. In 1966 he took the role of Lakhdar (the son) in Mohamed Lakhdar Hamina's highly successful Le vent des Aurès. In 1972 he directed L'Embouchure for Algerian TV, followed in 1974 by Les Paumés (1974). In 1982 he made his first feature-length film, Rupture, and has pursued a writer-director career since then.