life is a movie – part deux

Once again, I just can’t believe that certain things are really happening in my life. This feeling has been accompanying me here in Morocco since the very beginning and it’s been happening over and over again within my stay here. Once again, I got an unbelievable surprise from the faith or from whoever / whatever. I’ve been repeating many times recently that my life is a movie. Just read my blog deeply or go through my pictures to make sure that my life is indeed recently as a movie. But during the last week it was literally a movie because I actually did play in a movie! I already wrote you some months ago about me playing in the movie with Russel Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio directed by Ridley Scott. That thing unfortunately did not work out. However, another chance popped up in February. I didn’t want to blog about it straight away (as I did last time) as nothing was sure. But this time it did happen and it is still happening. I already spent three days on the movie set and I did play in a movie. Its name is “Green Zone” and it is a Hollywood production directed by Peter Greengrass with Matt Damon starring (I saw Matt Damon and someone took a group picture with him – as soon as I get it I will for sure publish it here). The movie deals with Iraq war and weapons of mass destruction supposedly owned by this country. The Green Zone is the compound in Baghdad with all the occidental (mainly American) offices, embassies and officials. It is a very luxury place surrounded by huge wall and guarded by tight security and military placed in the city where bomb blasts happen every day.

I am an extra which means that I am not in the middle of the action or in the spotlight (no, I am not a Hollywood star (yet) :P ). First two days (last Monday and Tuesday), I was an American civilian walking on the runway of a military airport in Iraq (of course, it was shot in Morocco). I must admit that it is very cool to see the film making process at the very time of its production. Most of you must think that it is also very exciting but to some extent I have to disappoint you. Filming movie is sometimes very boring. You just keep repeating the same scene over and over again. The first day I was just standing and supposed to be talking to the soldiers. It took us a few hours to finish this scene. In the meantime (between filming) we were just standing and waiting. The second day was much more interesting because I had to walk (the same walk for a few hours repeated over and over again – at least I was moving). On the other hand, it is so incredible to see the amount of work, efforts, people, facilities, devices and all different kind of things that are sacrificed in order to shoot the movie and at the end, the two days of filming I described above will be around 3 minutes in the movie (if not cut at all). The third day was the most exciting. I was a jogger. Again, if the scene is not cut and showed from the beginning till the end you should see me quite well with 3 other joggers running among the villas and palms of the titled Green Zone in Baghdad (originally filmed in the district of Rabat called Les Ambassadeurs very close to my office).

My other flat mates will join me on Monday (Mar 10) and we’ll go on the set again to film the scene by the swimming pool. Probably we’ll just have to lie, have some drinks and enjoy the sun. I will spend another week being very busy with my life as in a movie :)

I got to know about this opportunity through a friend of mine (an AIESEC alumni) who works in a media agency. May these networks last forever!

And last but not the least the money I am earning is unbelievably great. I will not be a millionaire but for sure my budget will be greatly impacted (for a few days on the set I will get more that what I earned in AIESEC over a few months) and I will spend the money for travels, clothes and overall enjoyment of my life in Morocco :)

Life is a movie!