SaphiaAzzeddine
NovelistScreenwriterDirector
Nine novels, two films, and characters who speak up without asking permission.
A shepherdess who addresses God, a father who works as a cleaner, a widow who climbs the minaret: since 2008, Saphia Azzeddine has given a voice to those nobody listens to.
The work
Nine novels
Portrait
From Agadir to Geneva
Born in Agadir in 1979, Saphia Azzeddine grew up in Morocco and then, from the age of nine, in Ferney-Voltaire, on the Swiss border. She holds a degree in sociology and worked as an assistant to a diamond dealer in Geneva, then as a journalist, before publishing her first novel in 2008.
Her books, often written in the first person, blend satire and tenderness. They deal with religion, social class, the place of women and exile, with a humour that spares no one.
Screen & stage
From book to screen
She adapted her second novel for the cinema herself, with François Cluzet, co-directed a comedy in 2018, and saw her first book brought to the stage and turned into a graphic novel, while Bilqiss was put into development in the United States.
Film & theatre →Mon père est femme de ménage
L'Italien
Demi-sœurs
Honours
Awards
- Prix Nice-Baie-des-AngesConfidences à Allah
- Molière award for best newcomerAlice Belaïdi, in the stage adaptation of Confidences à Allah
- Europe 1 audience award, Alpe d'Huez festivalMon père est femme de ménage (film)
- First prix des Lecteurs de L'HebdoBilqiss
- Burgundy literary prize for secondary-school and apprentice readersBilqiss
Press