Taghmaoui was first noticed as the Arab punk in La Haine, radiating
good-natured dumbness along with physical menace. Those two modes
define his subsequent career. He was winsome as Kate Winslet's lover in
Hideous Kinky, but memorably brutal as an Iraqi officer in Three Kings,
pouring oil down Mark Wahlberg's throat as he lectured him on politics.
He's even more menacing as the mute leader of a gang of street urchins in
Ali Zaoua, but entirely loveable in Uneasy Riders (as an orphaned gay
Muslim handicapped Johnny Halliday fan). This curious mix is serving
him well: he's rapidly becoming the token Arab of choice, unusually in
both French and English.
