Fettah Lamara

“When I felt the sea under my feet for the first time I forgot about everything. It was incredible.”

ATLANTIC.’s leading man Fettah Lamara was born in Rabat, Morocco’s in 1974. As a young boy, Fettah was interested in everything but school. When he was about twenty years old, his uncle decided to arrange a job for him at the local sailing club. The minute Fettah discovered the ocean he was hooked. It wasn’t long until Fettah became a sailing star, winning the top Moroccan youth sailing award several years in a row. He soon discovered windsurfing and it changed his life. “When I felt the sea under my feet for the first time I forgot about everything. It was incredible.”

At twenty-two, Fettah moved to Essaouira, Morocco’s windsurf capital, and then to the village of Moulay Bouzerktoun, a dedicated, hard core windsurfing spot on the Atlantic coast known for its gigantic waves. Fettah trained hard and won several Moroccan wave windsurfing championships. He also started his own restaurant and inn, the Lawama, and this where he met Jan-Willem van Ewijk for the first time in 2008. Jan-Willem frequently visited Moulay to set up his film project and soon he involved Fettah, who by that time had become a close friend. During the casting for ATLANTIC.

Jan-Willem started including Fettah in the auditions and rehearsals it soon became evident he had found his man. None of the more experienced actors had the emotional baggage needed for the role, nor could they pull of the intense physical acting involved, let alone the actual windsurfing on the ocean. ATLANTIC. will be Fettah’s feature film debut.