We Owe It To These Children To Tell The Truth
We sat down with Actor Malek Rahbani to talk about his successful TV series “The Streets of Humiliation” also known in his native language as “Chawareh El Zill”
Q: What was the challenge for you in this particular role?
A: For me it was trying to give truth to the character which I’m playing knowing that in Lebanon we see a lot of small children on the streets begging. These children are innocent and they are enslaved by evil people who use them to get money. Unfortunately it has become a business. So understanding these kids and learning more and more about them through the script by our wonderful writers and extensive research helped me portray these children as truthful as I could.
Q: The series has had more than six reruns in Lebanon and on the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation channel, why do you think it was able to succeed on this level?
A: Well I can vouch for every person on set starting from our producer, director, the whole cast and crew who put in everything they had for the good of this project knowing that what we were telling is happening in our everyday lives. We owe it to these children and the families that have been torn apart to deliver an authentic experience. This I believe had a major effect on viewers who night after night delved more into the story and felt what these children were feeling.
Q: This series was successful in the fact your face became known and we’re not going to say that you are a big celebrity, but a somewhat well-known face?
A: Haha no I’m not a celebrity in my country and it is very true that the series has enjoyed and still does with all the reruns huge success. My face on the other hand is Ok I guess I would say out of hundred people maybe 2 or 3 recognize me. The most pleasuring part for me is when someone congratulates me on a job well done. I feel like part of my duty to the audience has been delivered because in the end we are entertainers and our job is to entertain hard working people who come home at night looking at rest and watch TV.
Q: Last question if you were to go back today right now and play the part of Tiger again would you play it the same?
A: Look Tiger is a very special role to me, one that I hold dearly in my heart. Tiger’s role in the series was this young kid who’s got a girlfriend who’s also a street beggar like him and they watched over the younger kids together. So they were like the adoptive mother and father to the young kids. I know that I gave a hundred and ten percent on that role at that time. Now today I have grown in experience as an actor and gained a lot more knowledge, so of course if I were to go back I would definitely change a lot of my performance. Nevertheless I have no regrets I did my best and the rest is up to the audience to decide. We must always look forward and onto the next project.