Nairobi News

Alexander Karim, one of the stars in the hit Hollywood series, Tyrant, was recently in Kenya to shoot a movie. Kenyan actor Hussein Abdi Hussein made the revelation in an exclusive interview with Nairobi News on Tuesday.

“Karim came to Kenya in September and I met him through our Kenyan production company – Zamaradi Production which is currently producing the Kina series.  Zamaradi picked me as a location manager for a movie dubbed Kadzo and Karim was the lead actor,” Hussein said.

“I was the lead location manager as the project was being shot in the Coast region. The project is a production between Zamaradi and a Sweden-based production company called Bird Flamingo,” he added.

Mr Hussein was tasked with advising on and managing locations for the movie. He role was scouting for the best locations and locking them down for shooting through securing the necessary permits. He was also in charge of security for the locations chosen, the cast of the movie and the crew filming it.

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He further said the movie Kadzo is about love, human and drug trafficking – based on the real life experiences of Karim and his brother, Baker.

“They wanted to showcase their African background through love, drugs, and human trafficking in their family. There was nowhere else fit for the project rather than the Coast region, especially Mombasa where the whole project was shot. We used the Old Town area in Mombasa, Kilua Beach Resort, the beaches, Mombasa streets and clubs to shoot the movie which took us a month,” Hussein said.

He further revealed that he was impressed by how down to earth, compliant and eager to learn Mr Karim had been on set, especially in learning Swahili as part of the movie was scripted in Swahili.

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“By the time we were done with the project, you would hear him speaking the Swahili language which he learned because of the passion he had as an actor and that’s the key driver in our industry. Alex is a performer. When the director calls into action, he is always ready,” said Mr Hussein.

Hussein further noted that the globally renowned actor was professional on set, calm and humble – something that he related to as an actor as well as his mantra is “always be disciplined and humble.”

“My most recent project that Kenyans should be on the lookout for is one where I worked with a Belgium-based production company, Zeit Prung, in collaboration with Kenya’s Pontac Production as a location manage for a film. I have taken key interest in and I have an objective to make Mombasa and the whole coast region a film destination. I consider myself the “Locationguru001” as we have a ready and naturally created unique locations in the county. I am the go-to manager in the Coast region for this,” Hussein said.

Aside from Alexander Karim, Hussein hopes to work with more internationally acclaimed actors including American actor Leonardo DiCaprio, “who recently said there is a possibility of him coming to Kenya for a project.”

Tyrant is a series based in the Middle East and tells the story of a dictator’s family facing their country’s uprising following the death of the dictatorial president and his ruthless older son taking over the presidency. In the movie, Karim stars as Ihab Rashid, the exiled former resistance leader Sheik Rashid’s son, and the new resistance leader who aspires to take over the government from the tyrant’s family.

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